The NBA playoffs are heating up on and off the court. Fans are finally back in arenas, and they are clearly blowing off too much steam at games. A couple of weeks back we saw a fight break out at a baseball game. Now on the same night, we saw a fan spit on the Atlanta Hawks star Trae Young when he was near the sideline.
While in another game a fan literally dumped their popcorn on Russell Westbrook’s head as he was walking back to the locker room after getting injured.
This one is a little harder to see clearly. That’s just because the broadcast team wasn’t necessarily expecting the fan to spit on Young. Therefore, he pans the camera off of him pretty much right as the incident happens.
We can clearly see 50-Cent also sitting courtside with his girlfriend. From the reaction, it would seem that she also got some of the spit on her, unfortunately. For those of you who thought people who can afford courtside seats are a little more classy than the rest of us think again!
The Knicks are usually an organization that doesn’t have any type of problem kicking people out of their stadium. The famously kicked out Knicks legend Charles Oakley and just before the pandemic hit their superfan Spike Lee also had an altercation with Madison Square Garden staff.
The team has announced that they indefinitely banned the fan who spit on Young. Although, his face is not visible in the video. The man cannot show up to the arena, not just to Knicks games. He may also face legal repercussions!
This one was much closer to turning into the “Malice in the Palace” than the other one! This video is a lot clearer. You can see exactly when the popcorn hit Westbrook’s head. In this case, the reaction is almost immediate.
Bad ankle and all, Russell Westbrook had to be restrained by a crowd of arena security and team staff members. He looks like he is ready to run up into the stands and go all Ron Artest on that fan!
Current and former NBA players were not happy with what happened last night. LeBron James took to Twitter to say that players wanted to know who these people were. Charles Barkley also said on the post-game broadcast that he thinks they should change the rules.
According to Chuck, the rules should allow players to go up into the stand and “beat the hell” out of one person per game. Shaq was quick to agree with Barkley’s idea to stop some of this extreme heckling!
By the way WE AS THE PLAYERS wanna see who threw that popcorn on Russ while he was leaving the game tonight with a injury!! There’s cameras all over arenas so there’s no excuse! Cause if the 👟 was on the other 🦶🏾.🎥 #ProtectOurPlayers
— LeBron James (@KingJames) May 27, 2021
