The NBA courtside is one of the most unique experiences in sports, as very few sports allow you to sit that close to the action. Being this close makes it easy to interact with players, whether it’s to trash-talk them or support them. Trash-talk happens more often than not, but sometimes fans can cross even those lines.
During the Lakers’ loss to the Clippers two nights ago, LeBron James was sitting in street clothes at the end of the Lakers bench. A fan recorded himself trying to get LeBron’s attention by asking him why he sacrificed Kobe Bryant, prompting LeBron to stare at the fan.
This question might be funny to kids in school but is incredibly insensitive to even entertain. Not only would this person not talk to LeBron like this outside an NBA game, but the fan wouldn’t even dare say something like this in front of Bryant’s family.
The four-year anniversary of Kobe’s passing is tomorrow (26 January) and fans around the world will mourn the loss of the Mamba. His tragic passing isn’t meant to be used as fodder to try and bring down any NBA player, especially someone like LeBron, who shared a close relationship with Bryant.
Fan interactions with players this season have been escalating into bigger arguments, but James seemingly ignored this disrespectful fan. However, the fan got what he wanted and that was LeBron’s attention and internet notoriety.Fans talking too much to NBA players has started to bother many stars around the league. We’ve seen both LeBron and Russell Westbrook ordering security to remove disrespectful fans, but we saw Luka Doncic do it for the first time last night in a loss against the Phoenix Suns. Doncic, a known trash-talker, often engages with fans talking trash. But last night, a fan made a joke about Doncic needing to run on a treadmill which led to Doncic asking security to throw the fan out of the game.
This was followed by an angry Doncic rant after the game, accusing ESPN’s Tim MacMahon for quickly sharing a negative story about him without adding context. The context Doncic wanted to be added was that the fan had been trash-talking him the entire game, with Luka not choosing to repeat what the fan was saying. However, he implied MacMahon was within listening distance for all these interactions, which the reporter admitted he was.
Fans should be allowed to engage with players if they’re sitting courtside, as Luka also said while explaining why he’s never gotten a fan removed before. However, certain things can cross boundaries. We don’t know what happened in Luka’s case, but there are plenty of instances where fans have been removed for racist remarks, excessive trash-talk, and even impeding the game.
LeBron James recently had a fan run up to him during a game and try to hug him on the bench. James was naturally bewildered and didn’t entertain the fan., letting arena security handle him. NBA players are trying to perform at their best while being under pressure, so inappropriate fans shouldn’t be the reason they are being limited.
