NEW YORK — Fans are back in NBA arenas for the playoffs. While it’s genuinely heartening to see a rowdy and packed Madison Square Garden, that comes with problems that had been present for years before the pandemic.
The Knicks said Thursday that they confirmed a fan had indeed spit on Hawks star Trae Young Wednesday night.
“We investigated the matter and determined that this patron, who is not a season ticket holder, did indeed spit on Trae Young,” the team said in a statement. “For that reason, he is now banned from The Garden indefinitely. ... We have turned the information over to the appropriate authorities.”
“It’s all fun and games until ya ass banned for life,” Kevin Durant said after the Knicks news.
In Philadelphia and elsewhere, players were getting fed up with fans using their four-figure tickets as an excuse to abuse them. Just in the last few years, Kyle Lowry was shoved at the Finals and Russell Westbrook and Isaiah Thomas were subjected to things like “get down on your knees like you’re used to.” (The Westbrook and Thomas cases are probably best thought of as players reaching their tipping points rather than isolated incidents.)
After more than a year playing in front of limited or no fans, players are rightly on edge about their return.
On Wednesday night, a Sixers fan dumped popcorn all over Westbrook as he left the court with an ankle injury. The Sixers apologized Thursday morning and said the fan was banned and would have his season tickets revoked.
Philly fans have a history with Westbrook. In 2016, a fan was ejected after giving him a vigorous double middle-finger. The fan, a urologist, later said he did so because he was a “part-time comedian” and that Westbrook called him fat.
“This s--- is getting out of hand, especially for me,” Westbrook said Wednesday. “Just the amount of disrespect, the amount of fans just doing whatever the f--- they want to do. It’s out of pocket. It’s out of pocket, seriously. ... In these arenas you’ve got to start protecting the players. We’ll see what the NBA does.”
Young wasn’t as irate as Westbrook, maybe because he hasn’t piled up as many years of abuse.
Young tweeted Thursday morning that the video was “crazy” and that the fan should “Keep ya mask on my boy.” As bad as spitting on a player is, it’s easy to forget that it’s possibly more heinous to pull your mask down to do so during a pandemic.
One player tried to come up with a prophylactic plan. “Hopefully, we can just keep it strictly basketball,” Kyrie Irving said of his playoff return to Boston. “There’s no belligerence or racism going on — subtle racism.” I’m sure Boston’s famously respectful and not-racist fans will be cheering on a good, clean game.
