How were we watching sports without fans in the arenas or stadiums? That was my thought on May 23rd as I watched Game 1 of the series between the Atlanta Hawks and New York Knicks. The fans in Madison Square Garden were on Level 10. The Knicks were back in the NBA Playoffs and the arena was close to full capacity. The sight and sound of the fans made an intense game even better. Spike Lee was in his normal spot and The Last OG made an appearance. The crowd at MSG went at Trae Young and he went right back at them. Getting the W and giving us this…
The wheels came off after an entertaining weekend of basketball games. Ominously, Kyrie Irving was asked about returning to Boston to play a game in front of fans. And being that it was Kyrie, a generic answer wasn’t given. Kyrie touched on not wanting to deal with racial or other negative comments that might come from fans. The City of Boston and the fans of its professional sports teams has a well documented rep when it comes to racism. The next night there were incidents involving fans in all 3 games.
- In Philadelphia, a fan thought it was a good idea to dump popcorn on Russell Westbrook as he walked back to the locker room.
- In New York, a fan had the audacity to spit at Trae Young as he was about to inbound the basketball. I was shocked by this because no one seemed to realize what happened. Young and the referee close to him both had their backs to the fans. Whatever came out of the spitting fan’s mouth almost hit the court side companion of 50 Cent. She dodged the object but there still wasn’t much reaction from anyone close by.
- Then we found out there were issues in Utah. Some Utah Jazz fans harassed the family of Ja Morant (star point guard of the Memphis Grizzlies). Once again foul language and racial slurs were used.
The NBA quickly put out a statement the next day and promised to ramp up security in all arenas. Things were going well until the end of Game 4 between Brooklyn and Boston. Once again a fan thought it was a good idea to get themselves involved. The fan decided to hurl a water bottle towards Kyrie Irving as the Brooklyn Nets walked toward their locker room. The bottle was inches away from hitting Irving. The idiot fan was pointed out and quickly apprehended by security and police. He was arrested and now faces a felony charge. All for being dumb. In each incident the fans were banned from the respective arena of the home team hosting the game. Oh and if that wasn’t enough…today we found out that Immanuel Quickley was hit with a beer. Quickley, a rookie guard for the Knicks was hit while leaving the court in his own arena (MSG)!
So much for being hype about getting fans back. Fans have to stop being idiots and realize they don’t have the right to say or do wild things. They also need to know that their negative behavior will come with serious consequences. Luckily for the NBA none of the events ended with players going in the stands to take care of things. We all have seen the clips of how that went…no malice.
See How Long This Lasts 