More on Fan Behavior
The Celtics fan who allegedly threw a water bottle at Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving, who used to play for Boston, was arrested and charged with assault and battery with a deadly weapon, according to a report.
Boston Police sergeant detective John Boyle told USA TODAY Sports in a phone call that the suspect apprehended for the alleged incident, Cole Buckley of Braintree, Massachusetts, is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in Boston Municipal Court. The fan is also subject to a lifetime ban from TD Garden in Boston. The arrest took place at 9:46 p.m. ET.
Jared Weiss: Jayson Tatum: “18,000 people in the building, I guess in every arena there are a few bad seeds. I don’t want that to overshadow the rest of the fans who came and supported us tonight…but obviously there is no place in the NBA for throwing anything at a player.”
Jay King: Tatum said he has not seen the video of Kyrie Irving stomping on the Cs logo. He didn’t expand beyond that. Said he heard about the fan throwing a water bottle at Kyrie. Said there are a few bad seeds in any arena, but also said there’s no place in the NBA for anything like that.
Shams Charania: A fan in Boston has been arrested and banned for life from TD Garden for throwing a water bottle at Nets star Kyrie Irving in postgame tunnel tonight.
Tim Bontemps: A league source confirms to ESPN that the fan who allegedly threw the water bottle at Kyrie Irving has been arrested.
A fan threw a water bottle at Kyrie Irving as he and his teammates were exiting the game. They were not thrilled about it.
A Celtics fan at TD Garden threw a water bottle at Irving as he walked up the tunnel to the locker room Sunday after scoring 39 points to lead the Nets to a 141-126 rout of Boston in Game 4 of their first-round playoff series. “It’s unfortunate that sports has come to this kind of crossroads,” Irving said, “where you are seeing old ways come up … underlying racism and treating people like they are in a human zoo.”
“Anything could’ve happened with that water bottle being thrown at me,” Irving said. “But my brothers were surrounding me and I had people in the crowd. Just trying to get home to my wife and my kids.” It is not known if the arrested fan was intoxicated. “That’s just what sports is: You mix drunk people out in the crowd that are cheering for the team,” Irving said. “You have some fans that are there to watch the quality of the game. Now we don’t know who is who.”
“Fans got to grow up at some point,” Nets star Kevin Durant said. “I know being in the house for 1 ½ years has a lot of people on edge and a lot of people stressed out. But when you come to a game you have to realize these men are human. We are not animals in a circus.
Kristian Winfield: Kevin Durant to unruly fans: "Grow the fuck up and enjoy the game."
Damian Lillard: It’s happening every game. They not gone be happy til they do it to the wrong guy and get what they want
“From my understanding the culprit was taken care of very quickly,” Celtics guard Marcus Smart said. “We’re glad that was taken care of. Unfortunately, one bad seed doesn’t mean that the whole fruit is poisonous. Our fans have been great. We just had a knucklehead decide to do something knuckleheadish.”
