Toronto has long had a reputation as an excellent sports city. Their fans are passionate and known to show class.
But that reputation took a major hit during Monday’s Game 5 of the NBA Finals.
Kevin Durant went down with an Achilles injury early in the second quarter, and to the shock of the NBA world, the fans at Scotiabank Arena immediately responded by cheering the injury. They were eventually settled down by both Raptors and Warriors players to the point where Durant left the floor to “KD!” chants.
But that shameful reaction wasn’t limited to just a few fans at the arena. It also happened at the Raptors’ outdoor watch party at Jurassic Park.
In a live stream from Global News, we can see as Raptors fans celebrate Durant’s injury. The sequence starts at the 3:21:22 mark shortly after Kyle Lowry’s two-point jumper.
Fan appeared to cheer Durant’s turnover and resulting foul. But after a brief pause, the fans realized that Durant was down and injured. They responded by waving goodbye at the screens, cheering and hugging.
A tweeted clip of the reaction can be found here.
Obviously, the initial thought amongst the Raptors fans looked to be about the team’s title chances improving, but this was still a person hurt (in what looked to be a serious injury). You never want to celebrate an injury.
This was a bad look all around for Raptors fans.
