Over the past week in the NBA playoffs, players like Russel Westbrook, Kyrie Irving, and Trae Young. Young was spit on as he was inbounding the ball from the sideline:
Russel Westbrook got popcorn dumped on him by a fan:
Irving had a water bottle hurled at him from the stands:
Not only do these scenarios happen, some players also say that they’re constantly heckled with racial slurs. To me, Kyrie said it best, saying, “treating people like they’re in a human zoo.”
Fans being excited and in the game is great for any sport, because you can feel the buzz in the air. But when the players have things thrown at them or spit on or even the victim of racial slurs, that is completely asinine and should never be tolerated.
In the MLB, former Orioles outfielder Adam Jones said that he was the victim of racial slurs being yelled at him at Fenway. CC Sabathia said the same and some players went as far as saying they would never play in Boston, like Torii Hunter who had a no trade clause just for the Red Sox.
Bottom line, if you do any of this, you’re one of the biggest pieces of shit on earth. Mostly because we all know these guys can’t do anything back. If you throw something at a player, yeah you get banned from the arena and maybe arrested for a short period of time. If an athlete were to go up in the stands and do something to a fan, he could lose his whole career and be ridiculed constantly on social media and in media outlets.
Teams have issued apologies to players who have experienced these situations:
