Two Pacers fans sue former Milwaukee Bucks player for hurling basketball at them

Two Indiana Pacers fans are suing over an incident last year in which a former Milwaukee Bucks basketball player twice hurled a basketball into the stands and allegedly hit them with it during a playoff game in Indianapolis.

Jessica Simmons and Katie Lanciotti filed suit Friday in Marion Superior Court against the Milwaukee Bucks basketball organization and the team’s former point guard Patrick Beverley.

The lawsuit says Beverley threw a basketball at their plaintiffs’ heads, but they ended up being the ones who were forced to leave the game.

“We believe that the Milwaukee Bucks fostered a culture of misconduct by their players without any repercussions,” said attorney John Kautzman, who is representing the two fans and is a partner in the Indianapolis law firm of Ruckelshaus Kautzman Blackwell Bemis & Duncan LLP.

The incident happened on May 2, 2024, during Game 6 of the NBA Eastern Conference playoff series at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, a season-ending loss for the Bucks.

The NBA suspended Beverley for four games because of the interaction. The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department investigated the incident but determined Beverley would not be criminally charged, Fox 59 reported last August.

The incident occurred during the fourth quarter as Beverley was being taken out of the game and heading to the bench.

The lawsuit claims Beverley threw a basketball into the side of Lanciotti’s head, causing the necklace she was wearing to break from the impact. Beverley responded by acting like the ball was thrown by accident, according to plaintiffs.

Once he got the ball back, Beverley threw the ball again, harder this time, striking Simmons in the chest and face, causing immediate pain, the lawsuit says.

Beverley eventually had to be restrained by his teammates, according to the suit.

The lawsuit says the two plaintiffs and at least two other fans were escorted from their seats in a “perp walk” fashion to another room in Gainbridge so they could give written statements to security personnel at the arena.

Neither Beverley nor defendant Josh Oppenheimer, a Bucks assistant coach whom the plaintiffs accuse of provoking Pacers fans, was escorted out of the game or requested to provide written statements about the interactions, according to the lawsuit.

The Bucks organization and its chief legal officer did not respond to The Indiana Lawyer’s request for comment. The Lawyer wasn’t immediately able to get in touch with representatives for Beverley or Oppenheimer.

The day after the game, Beverley posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) that “the incident was not fair at all.”

The lawsuit says he also brought up the interaction on his podcast a few days later, stating that “it was an unfortunate situation that never should have happened. What I did was bad.”

The lawsuit accuses Beverley of putting the plaintiffs in a negative false light by suggesting on a podcast that they were kicked out of the game for touching assistant coaches.

Beverley’s social media and podcast comments also suggested one of the plaintiffs used derogatory language and/or racial slurs toward him, the lawsuit says. But the plaintiffs say they took no “derogatory action” toward Beverley.

When recounting the incident on the podcast, Beverley said, “I’ve been called a lot of stuff in this league. I’ve been called a ton of stuff and haven’t been called that one,” according to the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs are suing Beverley and the Bucks organization for battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, defamation, and invasion of privacy by false light.

They’re also suing Oppenheimer for incitement.