Hornets player regrets hitting Hawks fan with mouthguard after ejection

Bridges got frustrated after he was called for goaltending and also a foul on the Hawks’ De’Andre Hunter midway through the fourth quarter, approaching a referee and getting back-to-back technical fouls, earning an ejection.

As he was walking back toward the locker room he appeared to be taunted by a Hawks fan in the stands and he threw his mouthguard, which appears to hit another fan in the face.

“I was upset about a call, a couple calls, really, and I let my temper get the best of me,” Bridges told Rod Boone of the Charlotte Observer after the game. “That was definitely the wrong thing to do by throwing the mouthpiece. I was aiming for the guy that was screaming at me. ... It hit a little girl. That’s definitely unacceptable on my part. And I take full responsibility. I’m ready for any consequence that the NBA gives me. That’s on me. That’s out of character for me. ... That was definitely wrong. A lot of emotions and hopefully I can get in contact with the young girl and sincerely apologize to her and do something nice for her.”

Per a pool report, Bridges was given his first technical foul because he was “upset about a no call at one end, followed by a personal foul and goaltend on the other end of the floor and he aggressively approached the official with a clenched fist.”

Bridges was ejected because he “used profanity directed at the official and it was his second technical foul, by rule, that is an automatic ejection,” the pool report read.