It was honestly so close to being a triumphant night for Celtics faithful despite the home team’s loss. A sellout crowd of 17,226 filled TD Garden, cheered vigorously of what’s left of the Celtics in their 141-126 defeat to the elite Brooklyn Nets.
The Garden crowd was on its best behavior in its treatment of Kyrie Irving, the former Celtic who said he was prepared for racial and other offensive remarks in his first games back in Boston with fans.
Irving scored 39, helping the Nets take a commanding 3-1 series lead and then afterward, he walked to the Celtics’ leprechaun logo at center court and wiped his sneaker on its head before walking off the floor. And just as he was about to disappear into the tunnel, a rogue and idiotic Celtics fan tossed a water bottle that nearly hit Irving.
Stepping on the logo wasn’t the most mature act – and honestly, Irving is far from the first opposing player in Boston to step or spit on that Celtics symbol – but he did not deserve being nearly struck with a water bottle. The act confirmed the message Irving was trying to relay about Boston fans all this week.
It’s not fair. Ninety-nine point nine percent of the Celtics faithful were civil and respectful in their conduct, but the act of one fan, who was arrested and faces potential lifetime TD Garden ban, reflects so poorly on Boston, whose reputation as a progressive city has taken a beating in the past several days.
Irving essentially spent his postgame media session saying, “see, I told you so” and Boston had no defense. Fan incidents in Salt Lake City, New York and Philadelphia have preceded the water-throwing bonehead at the Garden and fan conduct is becoming a growing issue for players and the NBA.
But this was more than just a fan with a few too many beers acting like an ass. The act carries racial elements, at least that’s how Irving took it, and his feelings are not for debate. Regardless of how he exited Boston and what he did after the Game 4 win, Irving has a right to be upset about this conduct and it verifies why he was concerned about coming back here in the first place.
“It’s unfortunate that sports has come to a lot of this kind of crossroads where you’re seeing a lot of old ways come up,” Irving said, obviously referring to past times where overt racism was the norm. “It’s been that way in terms of entertainment, performers, and sports for a long time, underlying racism and just treating people like they are in a human zoo. Throwing stuff at people, saying things. There’s a certain point where it can be too much.
“I called it out. I wanted to keep it strictly basketball and people just feel entitled out here. We’re not at the theatre. We’re not throwing tomatoes and random stuff at the people that are performing and it’s too much.”
Fan entitlement is an issue and it’s not only in Boston, but fairly or not Boston has a troubled history with fan behavior and constant incidents that embarrass and damage the reputation of the city. The “oh well it happens other places, too” argument is beyond tired.
Incidents such as these overshadow the positive interactions between players and fans, such as prior to Game 4 when Jayson Tatum walked off the floor after a pregame workout, took off his shoes and directed a team official to hand them to a young fan wearing his jersey. For the entire game that young fan had Tatum’s size 16 Nikes in her lap, taking pics and showing them to other fans.
Yet all that will be discussed Monday is the dude in the Garnett jersey tossing a water bottle at Kyrie Irving and then looking befuddled as he was escorted out of the arena in handcuffs. Another demerit for the Boston sports culture.
“We keep saying things like, ‘we’re human, we’re human’ but we don’t get treated like we have rights when we’re out there at times,” Irving said. “We claim that we care about each other as human beings but we call things out before they happen like I did the other day and I’m telling people just keep it basketball and you have things that happen at [Madison Square] Garden, things that happen in Utah. There’s a lot of history there of things happening. So do you research.”
In a mostly Black league, all four of the fan-player incidents so far in the postseason have involved Black players – Irving, Trae Young, Russell Westbrook, and Ja Morant. Is that a coincidence? Or is there an underlying issue that some fans have with Black players they consider brash or just a threat to their favorite team’s success?
You hope the answer is the former. But for some fans, it’s the latter.
“As a Black man playing in the NBA, dealing with a lot of this stuff is fairly difficult,” Irving said. “Banning fans, I get the objective but it doesn’t stop people from running on the court. I’ve had situations so often throughout my career. We don’t want to talk about it because we want to be mentally tough, tough minded. We don’t want to be called soft or we’re not man enough to deal with boos.
“Fans never blocked my shot, so I’m not worried about that type of physical violence. I’ve dealt with it as a player here as a Celtics, and now being an opponent. I just want to move on.”
It was oh-so-close to being an uneventful weekend here in Boston, but it is ending with a bitter reminder that the ugliness is still very alive and well.
Gary Washburn can be reached at gary.washburn@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GwashburnGlobe.
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The ugly side of fan behavior emerged once again, and it’s a real problem for Boston and the NBA - The Boston Globe
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