After having to address a series of fan-related incidents at games last week, the NBA is dealing with another one to start this week. As the Nets were leaving the TD Garden court on Sunday following a win over the Celtics, a fan threw a water bottle at Brooklyn guard Kyrie Irving.
A TD Garden spokesperson announced late last night that the individual who threw the water bottle was arrested and is subject to a lifetime ban from the arena (link via Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe). The 21-year-old male is facing charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and will be arraigned on Tuesday, according to Boston PD (Twitter link via Shams Charania of The Athletic).
The bottle missed hitting Irving, who had spoken prior to Game 3 about hoping that fans would keep heckling and jeering “strictly basketball” in his return to Boston.
“You can see that people just feel very entitled out here,” Irving said after Game 4, per Malika Andrews and Tim Bontemps of ESPN. “They paid for their tickets — great, I’m grateful that they’re coming in to watch a great performance. But we’re not at the theater. We’re not throwing tomatoes and other random stuff at the people that are performing.”
The water bottle toss was the latest in a series of incidents involving fans. Fans in Philadelphia and New York received indefinite arena bans last week for dumping popcorn on Russell Westbrook and spitting on Trae Young, respectively. Ja Morant‘s father also said that he and his wife had racist, vulgar comments directed toward them in Utah, as Andrews and Bontemps note.
“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 to these games, you have to realize these men are human,” Kevin Durant said on Sunday. “We are not animals; we are not in the circus. You coming to the game is not all about you as a fan. So, have some respect for the game. Have some respect for the 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.”
Here’s more from around the East:
- The Celtics played without Kemba Walker (left knee bone bruise) and Robert Williams (turf toe, sprained left ankle) during Sunday’s loss, as Tim Bontemps of ESPN writes, and it’s not clear whether one or both players will be available for the team’s win-or-game-home Game 5 on Tuesday.
- The transformation the Bucks‘ roster underwent during the 2020 offseason paid off in the first round of the 2021 postseason, according to Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press. The team – which added Jrue Holiday, Bobby Portis, and Bryn Forbes last fall – figures to face a tougher test in round two, with a potential matchup vs. Brooklyn on tap.
- Jason Lloyd of The Athletic pushes back against GM Koby Altman‘s assertion that the Cavaliers had no young talent or draft assets in place when the team’s rebuild began in 2018 following LeBron James‘ departure. As Lloyd observes, rather than going all-in during LeBron’s final years in Cleveland, as they did during his first stint with the franchise, the Cavs had already traded Kyrie Irving for a lottery pick and had swapped out some veterans for younger players like Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance.
Cavs are not successful on draft picks
2018
8th pick Sexton
2019
5th pick Garland
2020
5th pick Okoro
Trade Clarkson for 2 second round picks and Exum
Must have been a racist, or maybe they just don’t like you cause you sucked in Boston
I hope someone throws a bottle of piss at you to see how you react
@carlos15… Maybe ’cause he played great in BOS much better than he did in CLE.
Altman’s presser sound like a narcissist reviewer of “I am the greatest!” You would have thought he was speaking before the finals about the championship caliber team he assembled. Apparently Koby doesn’t know how to read the standings.
As usual Kyrie sounds like an idiot. Its okay to throw stuff at the theatre actors (wtf?) but not at bball players!
Longtime Cryree hater here, and while he didn’t say it well, I kind of agree with what he was trying to say. In (some, specific) theatre shows, it is acceptable/expected to throw spoiled vegetables, roses, or toast to the stage/screen. In baseball you can throw back a home run. Even hockey has hattrick hats and octopi.
I don’t think it’s ever been cool to throw anything on to a basketball court. This is probably the most normal thing Irving has ever said in public.
Durant’s comments were level-headed. Kyrie’s point is legit, but of course he has to say it in a way that makes him come off like a pr*ck.
The people “around here” are “entitled”—I mean c’mon bro. Pot meet kettle.
It’s “underlying racism.” I suppose it could be. It could also be early onset schizophrenia. Not sure we can make a deep psychological assessment based on a 21 year old throwing a water bottle.
The Celtics security team removed most of the fans from the lower rows near the tunnel. Why? Was it because they knew something like this could happen?
That fan deserves to be ban from the arena by doing something stupid like throwing a water bottle at someone
the person was arrested.
Problem is…no real way to enforce banishment…symbolic at best.
He was given a felony. I think that supersedes any ban from a sports team
21. White. No criminal record. Wont spend any time in jail.
That certainly seems like a racist comment
Which is what liberals are fighting for, right?
Please mention that before Kyrie left the floor he stomped on the Celtics logo.
I know right after that he deserves some serious racism so he learns never to walk on the ground very offensive to birds etc.
What does racism have to do with this?? The fan is classless and so is Kylie…or whatever his name is.
Kyrie? Is he the long list Kardashian?
Haha…yes! Sometimes he certainly acts like one!
Who cares?
He is the show he can do whatever he pleases, fans only pay to watch & enjoy, no rights there for them!
Guy makes 30-40mil a year to play a game and still doesn’t show up 1/4 of the time for personal reasons. Yeah the fans are the ones that are entitled and should keep it strictly basketball. Hypocrite.
What’s lost is that his aim from where he was at was better than the Celtic’s shooting all series…
just completely appalled by this behavior, unacceptable by all accounts. he had one chance and had an open shot, then failed. wasted his chance.
That guy deserves to be banned from NBA arenas for life for this act. BUT does he really deserve to be charged with assault & battery with a dangerous weapon? If he gets convicted, does that mean I will have to show ID to purchase a bottled drink since it is a dangerous weapon now? A water bottle is not a dangerous weapon. It is just ridiculous to even consider it such.
BTW, the funniest about all of this is that everyone complained about fans not getting to go to the arena for a year and a half. Now all people can do is complain about the behavior of fans in the stands.
I think even the worst lawyer in Boston will have no trouble winning the case if this guy actually ends up going to trial facing that charge. The judge will almost certainly reduce it to some misdemeanor with a minimal fine.
All they have to do is pause the tape, circle the garbage can, and say that’s what he was aiming for… Cased Closed
The fan did not mean to hit Irving, flat earth gravity altered the trajectory.
This is the best comment.
I’m a loooong time C’s fan from NY. No one knows if this kid is racist, judging by his look, he’s probably more into city culture than Kyrie is. My guess is that the water bottle throw was due to the hate for Kyrie because of broken promises and the dumb sh*t he’s said, rather than hia skin tone. Does Boston have racist people in it? Of course. So does NY, so does Chicago, so does LA, etc.. And that racism goes in every direction you can think of. The ignorance is pretending like that’s not the case, then stoking the race fire with subtle (and not so subtle) quotes, accusations and expectations, THEN saying race was a factor when something happens that had a real possibility of having nothing to do with race. Throw enough stones, eventually some will be thrown back (or water bottles).
Just my two pennies.
Boston is a racist city. Always has been. All Celtic players know that. Who cares who’s racist. You say shot you will get your aaa kicked. You throw stuff you will go to jail. All these players are athletic stars. What is throwing at them about. Like you really want to fight over what. There are no bigger idiots than these kind of anuses. Or internet tough guys. Players have to be protected. It’s really amazing to me that racists go to NBA gms considering the league is 65% black. Why would you go there. Stick to hockey. It’s like the racists SEC fans. That makes a lot of sense too. Racists are not excatly the intellectual type.
Someone needs to shake you Allan – – who said this was anything about race??? Other than the chronic victim?
So Al says guilty of racism because the thrower was from Boston. This is Al’s level. A Celtic fan, who was jolted by lies from Irving. Nevermind that, Bostoners are all racist says those at Irving’s level. IMO, Tatum & Brown have been overly undercriticized locally.
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There are theaters where actors can be pelted with tomatoes?— in the last 80 years or so?
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I am probably just mad at Altman… What a wierd mishmash of stories on this page.
I wouldn’t say I’m a fan of Boston as a city. And I think there’s some merit to the stereotypes of the city.
Having said that, it’s one of ten largest metro regions in the country. That’s a lot of people.
Plus the kid is 21. He deserves to be held accountable for his stupidity, but I would be hesitant to paint with too broad of a brush wrt to his character.
KD makes very good points, very level headed!
Now this particular co called fan, as clearly he can’t be one by his behavior, & all the others that behaved sooo despicably this week should be banned, fined at the very least $50K, probably a lot more, & finally face 1 year in prison with a felony charge… Now that would be a deterrent for people that can’t behave in a proper manner!
The writer on the Cavs presser was a former beat reporter and is still mad about 2018, made madder by Altman not admitting to past errors. I can sympathize being mad about that also. Gilbert was probably there too, and Altman is not one to deviate from the boss.
It is tough news to swallow when one’s team owner sabotages a possible title because he doesn’t like the star. I am unhappy so many TA-posters/Cavs-fans thought GSW was unbeatable in 2018 so why try.