Mutombo foundation mourns 8-year-old NBA fines Nets coach $25,000

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – An eight-yearold boy from the Democratic Republic of Congo who came to Los Angeles with the help of former NBA star Dikembe Mutombo for surgery to remove a tumor from his face has died.

Mutombo and his foundation helped bring Matadi Sela Petit and his father to the United States earlier in December so that doctors could remove the tumor.

But in an Instagram post on Saturday the foundation said the boy had died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Friday night after a reaction to anesthesia during surgery.

‘’The Dikembe Mutombo Foundation is sad to share the news of the passing of Matadi Sela Petit,’’ the post said, adding that the boy had ‘’won everyone’s heart with his open and friendly attitude’’ since his arrival in the United States.

NEW YORK (AFP) – Brooklyn Nets coach Kenny Atkinson was fined $25,000 by the NBA on Saturday for verbal abuse of referees and not promptly leaving the court after an ejection, the league announced.

Atkinson received a technical foul and was ejected with 69 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter of Brooklyn’s 114106 loss to the visiting Indiana Pacers on Friday.

Atkinson unleashed a profanity-filled rant at referee Tony Brothers, unhappy at a non-call of what he felt was a foul on Indiana’s Myles Turner as well as a Nets foul on Latvian forward Rodions Kurucs.

The loss snapped a seven-game win streak for the Nets.