A fan was tackled after running onto the court during an NBA playoff game between the Washington Wizards and Philadelphia 76ers on Monday night, the latest example of unruly behavior as teams let more spectators in the stands during the pandemic. “You can tell those people have been in some sort of captivity for the last year, year and change, right?” Wizards center Robin Lopez said. “It’s kind of wild to see the liberties people are taking.”
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The fan was escorted away from the court and play resumed after a brief interruption. “I don’t know what he was trying to do,” Washington forward Rui Hachimura said. “I think they're just excited to come back. But they’ve got to be more respectful of us as players. They think they can do whatever they want."
Washington Wizards coach Scott Brooks is old-school NBA. Mainly because Brooks had to work hard – and then work some more – to get everything he earned during his NBA career as a player. It wasn’t surprising Brooks delivered a scathing five-minute old-school rebuke of the fan who ran onto the court during the third quarter of Game 4 between Washington and Philadelphia on Monday. “But it’s unfortunate one fan here and there, it ruins it for everyone,” Brooks said. “There’s great fans in Boston and New York and Philly and DC, Utah. But there’s some that just need to, you know what, stay home. Your thinking is barbaric. Stay home. We don’t need you. We don’t need your dollars. Just stay home. Get away from us.”
“Banning them and this and that,” he said. “What does that mean? Is there facial recognition that you can’t get a ticket on the secondary market and don’t shave for a week and wear a hat and still come in. I don’t know if there’s criminal charges, but they’ve got to get something on their record, and they’ve got to get exposed and they have to pay money out of their own pocket.”
David Aldridge: I asked Bradley Beal if he felt any less safe of late given the rash of fan-player incidents. He said no, saying he trusts security-while also pointing out that fans normally don’t confront players directly. "I don’t want to use my hood slang, but these hands work," he said.
“That was just some [expletive] [expletive] and that was it,” said Tobias Harris. “I don’t know what you really want the NBA to do.People have been stuck in the house for a long time, social media is a big thing so everybody wants clout somewhere so he got 15 seconds of fame. That was it really.”
Stefan Bondy: Immanuel Quickley said a beer was thrown at him in Game 2 at MSG. “Not sure why, not even sure who did it, but it happened. I guess that’s part of having fans in the game.”
On the same night a fan spit on Trae Young at the Garden last Wednesday, Knicks rookie guard Immanuel Quickley was doused by beer. A Garden fan who allegedly threw a beer toward the Knicks bench last week has been permanently banned from the arena, The Post has learned.
Following the incident, Irving said players can be treated like they’re in “a human zoo.” He also condemned the fan’s actions. “Throwing stuff at people, saying things. There’s a certain point where it gets to be too much,” said Irving. “You see people just feel very entitled out here. ... As a Black man playing in the NBA, dealing with a lot of this stuff, it’s fairly difficult. You never know what’s going to happen.”
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.”
