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Damian Lillard acknowledged that it’s impossible to prevent fan incidents although when it comes to punishments, the league can still do a lot more.
Kyrie Irving has been very honest about the way Celtics fans have treated him over the years and it was a massive concern just a few days ago as he and his Brooklyn Nets teammates arrived in Boston for Games 3 and 4 against the Celtics. While Game 3 went without an issue, Game 4 was a different story as Irving had a bottle thrown at him by a fan. The spectator was eventually arrested as has been charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
Now, players around the league are commenting on the situation, including Damian Lillard, who had a lot to say on the matter. In the tweet below, Lillard acknowledged that it is impossible to control how fans will act at the games. However, Lillard believes local arena bans aren’t enough. Instead, the fans should be permanently banned from all 30 NBA arenas.
This is certainly a great solution although it will certainly be difficult to enforce. The league would effectively need to give every single arena employee a list of names and headshots, where they would then have to enforce the rule at every single gate in the arena. It’s no easy task but it’s an effort that should at least be tried.
Hopefully, these sorts of incidents don’t happen again, as they are an embarrassment for the league, and the fanbases in which the perpetrators belong to.
Steph Chambers/Getty Images
Damian Lillard acknowledged that it’s impossible to prevent fan incidents although when it comes to punishments, the league can still do a lot more.
Kyrie Irving has been very honest about the way Celtics fans have treated him over the years and it was a massive concern just a few days ago as he and his Brooklyn Nets teammates arrived in Boston for Games 3 and 4 against the Celtics. While Game 3 went without an issue, Game 4 was a different story as Irving had a bottle thrown at him by a fan. The spectator was eventually arrested as has been charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
Now, players around the league are commenting on the situation, including Damian Lillard, who had a lot to say on the matter. In the tweet below, Lillard acknowledged that it is impossible to control how fans will act at the games. However, Lillard believes local arena bans aren’t enough. Instead, the fans should be permanently banned from all 30 NBA arenas.
This is certainly a great solution although it will certainly be difficult to enforce. The league would effectively need to give every single arena employee a list of names and headshots, where they would then have to enforce the rule at every single gate in the arena. It’s no easy task but it’s an effort that should at least be tried.
Hopefully, these sorts of incidents don’t happen again, as they are an embarrassment for the league, and the fanbases in which the perpetrators belong to.
