Kevin Durant Says Fans Lack Respect for Players
A classless idiot at TD Garden launched a water bottle at Kyrie Irving after the Brooklyn Nets’ 141-126 blowout victory in Game 4 against the Boston Celtics.
The idiot, identified as 21-year-old Cole Buckley, was arrested shortly after the incident, as he was ultimately given a lifetime ban from TD Garden. He is also facing assault and battery with a dangerous weapon charge.
“It’s unfortunate that sports have come to a lot of these crossroads where you’re seeing a lot of old ways coming up,”
Irving said.
“It’s been that way in history in terms of entertainers, performers, and sports for a long period of time of just underlying racism and treating people like they’re in a human zoo. Throwing stuff at people, saying things. There gets to be a point where it’s too much.”
Kevin Durant About The Fans
Kevin Durant had his teammate and best friend’s back following the ugly incident.
“Fans have got to grow up at some point,”
Durant said.
“I know that being in the house for a year-and-a-half with the pandemic got a lot of people on edge, got a lot of people stressed out. But when you come into these games, you’ve gotta realize these men are human. We’re not animals; we’re not in a circus.”
“You coming to the game is not all about you as a fan. Have some respect for the game, have some respect for these human beings and have some respect for yourself. Your mother wouldn’t be proud of you throwing water bottles at basketball players or spitting on players or tossing popcorn.
“Grow the f— up and enjoy the game. It’s bigger than you.”
Incidents With Fans
Both Durant and Irving are absolutely right. Opposing fans can boo, talk smack, or do whatever they need to do to get into the opponents’ heads without throwing objects, saying racist or other derogatory things to players and their family members, and spitting at them.
Trae Young was spat on in New York, Russell Westbrook had popcorn thrown on him in Philadelphia and Ja Morant’s parents were subjected to racist and vulgar comments in Utah.
These incidents will unfortunately probably not be the last of them, but it’s up to the NBA and local law enforcement to team up and come up with new guidelines to protect their players and come up with more severe punishment for spectators who put the safety of these players at risk.
Boston fans have a right to hate Kyrie given that he left their team and the imperfect ending to his tenure there. However, you can’t let a player’s personal decision anger you to the point where you put other people’s lives in danger.
It’s not cool at all to act this way whatsoever, and because that guy decided to be a fool, he’ll no longer be able to root for his favorite team in person and there’s a chance he can face a lengthy prison sentence. If you want to get your point across but still be able to live a free and happy life afterward, just stick to booing or partake in other crowd chants.
The spread for Game 1 between Brooklyn and the Milwaukee Bucks is currently Brooklyn -4.
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