Brooklyn Nets forward Paul Pierce has been fined $15,000 by the National Basketball Association (NBA) for committing a flagrant foul on opposing point guard George Hill during Monday’s game against the Indiana Pacers.

The incident occurred during the third quarter of Brooklyn’s 103-86 loss to Indiana, when Pierce made a “clothesline” tackle on Hill as the Pacers player was going for a lay-up.

Pierce was ejected from the game and the NBA announced his fine on Tuesday, saying that the 10-time All Star had made “excessive and unnecessary contact” with Hill.

However Hill appeared to defend Pierce, suggesting that in a previous era the foul would not have received such a penalty.

“I think back in the day, hard fouls was good,” Hill told reporters after the game. “So, it was a hard foul, but at the end of the day, don’t let it rattle you and that’s what I thought about.”

A frustrated Pierce shot 0-of-7 from the floor against the Pacers, missing his two three-point attempts, to record only the second scoreless game of his NBA career.

A clothesline tackle refers to when a player extends an arm around an opponent’s neck area.

Source: Reuters (Reporting by Andrew Both in Cary, North Carolina; Editing by Mark Lamport-Stokes)