Smart in verbal altercation w/fan. Says players might need to protect themselves

[nickagneta]

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/28145430/celtics-marcus-smart-says-players-start-protecting-altercations-fans

Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart says NBA players are "gonna end up protecting ourselves eventually" in altercations with fans after he got tangled up with a spectator during Friday's game against the Denver Nuggets.

In the fourth quarter, Smart fell into the front row of the crowd at the Pepsi Center while chasing a loose ball. When he got up, he exchanged words with a fan nearby.

"My foot got stuck in a chair, and the fan told me, 'That's right, stay on the ground, get on your knees,'" Smart said after the Celtics' 96-92 loss. "Excuse me? You know what I'm saying. I just told him, 'Listen, just watch the game.'"

Smart said he was not satisfied with the security response after he pointed out the fan.

"I told them who it was. They just looked at him and didn't even say anything to him," Smart said. "... Probably if I was a superstar, they probably would've did something for it. It is what it is.

"We're gonna end up protecting ourselves eventually, and it's not gonna be pretty for those fans. We don't want that, the league doesn't want that, we don't want that as players, but at some point you have to stand up and you gotta protect yourself as a man."

Video showed staff members talking to fans in the area of the incident, but no action was taken.

The Nuggets told The Denver Post that security looked into the incident but could not determine what happened.

In college at Oklahoma State, Smart was suspended for three games in February 2014 when he shoved a Texas Tech fan. Smart had told Cowboys coaches the fan had directed a racial slur at him, ESPN reported at the time.

Smart said he will look to move on from his latest incident but noted that player/fan altercations are an ongoing issue.

"That's a problem in the league that we gotta fix, because if we retaliate to protect ourselves, we're the ones getting in trouble -- they're not -- and that's not right," he said.

[libermaniac]

Totally reminded me of his OSU incident but to his credit he displayed way more control. He’s stretching it with that “protect ourselves” argument. He just needs to tell officials and they’ll remove the jerks who say such things.

[saltlover]

Totally reminded me of his OSU incident but to his credit he displayed way more control. He’s stretching it with that “protect ourselves” argument. He just needs to tell officials and they’ll remove the jerks who say such things.

He’s upset because he told officials and no action was taken.

[ederson]

He told security not the refs

[Ogaju]

Totally reminded me of his OSU incident but to his credit he displayed way more control. He’s stretching it with that “protect ourselves” argument. He just needs to tell officials and they’ll remove the jerks who say such things.

Did you even follow his statement because you are obviously ignoring the fact that your solution that 'He just needs to tell officials and they'll remove the jerks who say such things' did not work in this case, and that is exactly what Smart is alluding to. So where exactly did he stretch anything?

[greg683x]

He told security not the refs

that would and should make it that much more egregious from his perspective.

[hpantazo]

Smart is right. Fans in Boston got banned for life for stuff like that, yet no action at all, not even a warning, was taken for this incident in Denver. If security doesn't protect players, players will protect themselves. Just because you bought seats to a game doesn't give you the right to verbally abuse the players with racist laden comments.

Tell the players they suck, can't shoot, are losers, whatever, but don't cross the line into personal and racist stuff.


I'm glad Smart retained himself and handled it well by informing security and then telling the media afterwards. A younger Smart would have decked the guy and been suspended for the season.

[droopdog7]

The fan was obviously being a d*** but this is fairly mild imo.  Smart is paid in part to being to take that level of fan participation.

[BudweiserCeltic]

Smart shouldn't be this vanilla.

[bdm860]

Tell the players they suck, can't shoot, are losers, whatever, but don't cross the line into personal and racist stuff.

I'm of the opinion that this wasn't racist, and the fan just said one of things you listed as acceptable, but in a more vulgar way.

You suck is short for saying you suck a [thing we can't say here] (though granted has lost that meaning long ago, and has been used much more generally for years).

Telling somebody to stay on their knees, well i took that to mean stay on your knees to perform oral sex on me.  Not in a racist way, but in the alpha male way, kinda like calling another man a female dog or female body part or telling somebody to bend over.

[ChillyWilly]

Weak sauce if opposing fans words affect you like that.

[Ogaju]

Weak sauce if opposing fans words affect you like that.

so he has to take abuse? What if he is weak? Why does he have to take abuse? Looks like you are making excuses for the abuser. Weak or strong the player has a right not to be abuse in that manner.

[CelticsElite]

Weak sauce if opposing fans words affect you like that.

so he has to take abuse? What if he is weak? Why does he have to take abuse? Looks like you are making excuses for the abuser. Weak or strong the player has a right not to be abuse in that manner.

how is it a abuse? Its typical fan banter. Smarts just mad he got stuck in a chair. 

[RPGenerate]

I love Smart, but this looks pretty weak. Nothing (as far as we know) went over the line, and nothing got physical. Just seems like Smart got up in his feelings.

[Ogaju]

I love Smart, but this looks pretty weak. Nothing (as far as we know) went over the line, and nothing got physical. Just seems like Smart got up in his feelings.

Yall do not think these players have human feelings? Good days, and days when they are in a bad mood? I do not remember but did that incident happen before or after his team mates injury? You cannot expect these players to be robots because they are not robots. When a player is outside the line fans should be very careful what they say to them. When the player is between the lines yeah you can banter all you want. Its like the rule that fans should not put their hands on players. When a play takes the player into the stands the fans should shut up and not start a conversation.