BEIJING (AP) — Former NBA star Stephon Marbury has denied hitting a fan after a testy playoff loss in a Chinese Basketball Association game.
The 35-year-old Marbury and his Beijing Ducks teammates were trapped in their team van after their 102-100 road loss on Sunday to the Shanxi Brave Dragons, Marbury’s original team when he joined the league in 2010. A newspaper photograph showed fans pounding on the windows of the van.
Marbury was quoted Tuesday by the official China Daily as saying he and the fans had been separated by guards.
Marbury scored 25 points in the game that was interrupted for 10 minutes as Shanxi fans threw water bottles onto the court.
Shanxi’s win tied the best-of-five series at 2-2, with the final game in Beijing on Wednesday. The winner goes to the CBA finals.
