By Matt Castillo
The NBA Playoffs last year as everyone already knows was played in the bubble at Disney. No fans were allowed into the games, but instead, some family members that also had to follow strict guidelines to enter the bubble were eventually allowed in.
This season, however, fans were eventually allowed back into the arenas at limited capacity. And that capacity for many teams went up right before the playoffs, which sounds like a good thing right? I mean, after all, every commentator and analyst has kept saying how amazing it will be when fans are back in the seats. So, yes it has been nice seeing fans back in the crowd but the NBA Playoffs seem to have brought out the worst in some fans.
There have been several incidents with fans going overboard so far in the first round of the NBA Playoffs starting with Russell Westbrook last week in Philadelphia. He left the game after with an ankle injury and as he was walking off the court a fan decided to throw popcorn at him….. I mean didn’t this person see what happen when somebody threw a drink at Ron Artest? And if Westbrook got free from the security guards we could’ve had another ugly incident.
A few days later my New York Knicks were hosting the Atlanta Hawks and fans were trying to give Trae Young a hard time, but two fans took it to idiotic heights when they decided to spit at Young. Well, it was Young who had the last laugh as he completely dominated my Knicks and sent them home.
In Boston, Kyrie Irving made his return to the TD Garden and Boston fans were already not happy with Irving after how his two-year stint with the Celtics was filled with plenty of drama. Irving stomp on the Celtics Logo “Lucky” at half court after the game, so he was kind of asking for a hostile crowd but a fan once again took it too far throwing a water bottle at Irving’s head, and now that fan is facing charges for his stupidity.
And Finally, the other night returning to the 76ers and Wizards series a fan from Washington decided to stop the game and run onto the court, But he wasn’t fast and didn’t make it far as he was tackled by security.
Matt Castillo
The point of writing this is to encourage fans to stop doing stupid things! I get the excitement and the emotions of the playoffs but people stop taking it too far. If you want to boo and make life difficult for the opposing players that great and that is part of the game, but I mean throwing something at them….. or spitting on them, which is flat-out disgusting.
There is no place for that kind of behavior in any sports and I think the punishments for these idiotic fans should be severe so this kind of stupidity stops and we can just simply enjoy the game.
