Jayson Tatum Reacts To Fan Throwing Bottle At Kyrie Irving
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS - FEBRUARY 12: Jayson Tatum #0 of the Boston Celtics looks on during the first quarter against the Detroit Pistons at TD Garden on February 12, 2021 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
Another slate of playoff games on Sunday featured another unfortunate incident involving a fan. This time, Kyrie Irving was the victim at TD Garden.
Following the Brooklyn Nets' 141-126 win over the Boston Celtics Sunday night, a fan threw a bottle at Irving. Fortunately, it missed. But the Nets star was visibly upset, as he should've been.
It was yet another ugly scene involving a fan and player this postseason. Irving joins Russell Westbrook and Trae Young as the latest to experience an ugly act of fan taunting.
After hearing of last night's incident, Jayson Tatum addressed it during his postgame interview. He said there's "no place" for fans throwing objects at players, but doesn't want one fan to "overshadow" the other 18,000 Celtics fans who behaved properly.
“I mean, 18,000 people in a building. I guess in any arena there are a few bad seeds,” Tatum said after Sunday's game, via NESN.com. “I don’t want that to overshadow the rest of the fans that came and supported us tonight. I was extremely happy to see that, but obviously, there’s no place in NBA for throwing bottles or throwing anything at a player. So I’m sure that they’ll handle that right away.”
Fortunately, the Celtics and the NBA have taken action. The fan who threw the bottle at Kyrie Irving has been arrested. Boston has also permanently banned the fan from TD Garden.
Hopefully fans have learned their lesson: don't throw objects at players. It's unacceptable, and teams will take proper action to ensure those same fans who act out of line are banned from certain arenas.
Fortunately for Kyrie Irving and the Nets, it looks like they won't have to return to TD Garden this postseason. Brooklyn has a chance to wrap up the series on Tuesday.
