At least one Philadelphia 76ers fan was ejected during the fourth quarter of the Sixers 105-87 win over the Los Angeles Lakers after taunting Lakers forward Carmelo Anthony.
Midway through the fourth quarter, Anthony approached the courtside seats, and had to be stopped by the referee as he confronted the fan.
According to NBA Insider Chris Haynes, the fan was calling Anthony “boy,” and telling him to “get in the corner boy.”
Sixers fan that was ejected for taunting Los Angeles Lakers star Carmelo Anthony kept calling him a “boy” and yelling “get in the corner boy” and “keeping shooting boy,” league sources tell @YahooSports.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) January 28, 2022
According to ESPN, Anthony confirmed the report, and the fan was ejected from the arena.
“Some things were said,” Anthony said after the game. “Unacceptable. I’m cool with fans heckling, fans talking trash, cheering for their team, booing the other team, I’m all for that. But when you cross certain lines, as a man, you just, that’s what you’re going to see. That’s what you’re going to get, as you saw there.”
Lakers head coach Frank Vogel said there has to be a “higher standard.”
“Unacceptable language and unacceptable behavior by fans is the simplest way to put it,” Vogel said. “There’s got to be a higher standard. And hopefully that’s handled the right way.”
It’s certainly not the first incident of Philadelphia fans irking an opposing player.
In 2021, Russell Westbrook had to be restrained after a 76ers fan dumped a bucket of popcorn on his head as he exited the floor with an injury.
“To be completely honest, this s*** is getting out of hand, especially for me,” Westbrook said, according to ESPN. “The amount of disrespect, the amount of fans just doing whatever the f*** they want to do — it’s just out of pocket. There are certain things that cross the line. Any other setting …a guy were to come up on the street and pour popcorn on my head, you know what happens.”
fan pours popcorn on Westbrook as he’s being assisted off floor with an injury pic.twitter.com/tGcn4kqRqq
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) May 27, 2021
The individual responsible for dumping popcorn on Westbrook was ejected and banned from the arena indefinitely.
After an investigation into the incident that occurred at last night’s game, we have determined that the person involved will have his season ticket membership revoked, effective immediately. In addition, he will be banned from all events at Wells Fargo Center indefinitely.
We apologize to Russell Westbrook and the Washington Wizards for being subjected to this type of unacceptable and disrespectful behavior. There is no place for it in our sport or our arena.
In November, Lakers star LeBron James had two Indiana Pacers fans ejected from the arena, with James saying the trash talk went “outside the line.”
“There’s a difference between cheering on your home faithful, booing opponents, not wanting your opponents to be successful and there’s then moments where it goes outside the line with obscene gestures and words,” James said postgame. “That shouldn’t be tolerated in our game from nobody.”
“I would never say it to a fan and a fan should never say it to a player.”
The Lakers loss dropped them to 24-25.
Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to [email protected].