Kyrie saying he hopes there won't be racist abuse from Boston fans

[Roy H.]

Marcus Smart fueling the anti-Boston flames:

When asked whether he has heard racial remarks made against opposing players from the Boston crowd, Smart confirmed he witnessed at least a few interactions.

“Yeah, I’ve heard a couple of them,” Smart said after practice Thursday. “It’s kind of sad and sickening. Even though it’s an opposing team, we’ve had guys on your home team that you’re saying these racial slurs and you expect us to go out here and play for you. It’s tough.”

Why comment at all?  I hope that he’s traded this off-season.

I’m not sure I trust Marcus here.  He happens to be the only person in America who heard a Texas Tech fan shout the N-word at him before going into the stands to attack him.  He says a woman outside the TD Garden loudly shouted the N-wordat him when he was doing a good deed.  Again, no witnesses or corroboration.  To me, he’s got all the credibility of Tawana Bradley.

Marcus is apparently the only black Celtic, other than Kyrie now, to have dealt with these things it seems. Haven't heard anything from anyone prior to this, besides the stereotypes from opposition fans that Bostonians are racist.

Heck, even Perk and IT4 have gone on record saying Boston crowds are tough, but explicitly mention that they're not racist.

I'm pretty done with Marcus too. Heart and soul my rear-end

Marcus wrote about this last year.  Not quite sure why you're surprised he'd say this now:

But the incident that has stuck with me the most, and that’s had the biggest impact on me, occurred a few years back after a victory at the Garden.

I was pulling out of the arena parking lot when I saw a white woman with her five- or six-year-old son crossing against the light right as the cars were starting to come at them. I had my windows down and realized something bad was about to happen, so I yelled to her, politely, that she needed to hurry and get out of the street so the two of them wouldn’t get hurt.

The woman was wearing an Isaiah Thomas number 4 Celts jersey. And there were all these other Celtics fans around who were at the game. I figured she’d be cool. 

Nope.

She swung her head around and it was….

“F*** you, you f***ing n-word!!!!”

https://www.theplayerstribune.com/posts/marcus-smart-nba-boston-celtics-covid-racial-injustice

TP.

This isn't the first time Marcus has spoken about his experience and he shouldn't be restricted from speaking about it. The same people railing against him in this thread and calling for him to be traded, are the first ones to shout about PC culture and free speech. Interesting how the tables turn.

I've had some racially charged experiences in my life - a few when I lived in the South - but the most frightening one was when I was going to college in Boston. I've told this story before, but when I told my family of my decision to go to school in Boston, my grandmother basically staged in intervention to try to talk me out of it because of the racist rep it has. Granted, the city has come a long way from the days of Bill Russell. But it's not nearly as progressive as it thinks it is because people would prefer to pretend things like this don't still happen there with the frequency it does instead of confronting it head on.

Marcus has said that he heard opponents being called racial slurs at the TD Garden on multiple occasions. Where are the witnesses? Why is he the only person in the arena who heard those? And why is he speaking up about it now, broadly painting the entire city with a racist brush?

I don’t automatically believe somebody just because they make an accusation.  He has lied about this stuff before, so why should we believe him now?

[Kernewek]

One thing that hasn’t been brought up is the way that homogeneity in a fan base can contribute to these perceptions.

Or:
Is anyone surprised that the two teams embroiled in racism chatter are the Utah Jazz and the C’s, while the two teams being called out for boorish behaviour are the Knicks and the 76ers?

The other 3 had actual incidents occur, whereas the Celtics did not. That’s a pretty important point of difference for my mind.

I'm not trying to equivocate them in that sense (I do agree with the sentiment that Irving was trying to get out ahead of the narrative before game 3 actually), so fair point.  It feels like forever ago, but last season there was a fan suspended for calling DeMarcus Cousins the N word.

I tend to agree with what RJ87 is saying, in other words: that "people would prefer to pretend things like this don't still happen there with the frequency it does instead of confronting it head on."

[Celtics2021]

Marcus Smart fueling the anti-Boston flames:

When asked whether he has heard racial remarks made against opposing players from the Boston crowd, Smart confirmed he witnessed at least a few interactions.

“Yeah, I’ve heard a couple of them,” Smart said after practice Thursday. “It’s kind of sad and sickening. Even though it’s an opposing team, we’ve had guys on your home team that you’re saying these racial slurs and you expect us to go out here and play for you. It’s tough.”

Why comment at all?  I hope that he’s traded this off-season.

I’m not sure I trust Marcus here.  He happens to be the only person in America who heard a Texas Tech fan shout the N-word at him before going into the stands to attack him.  He says a woman outside the TD Garden loudly shouted the N-wordat him when he was doing a good deed.  Again, no witnesses or corroboration.  To me, he’s got all the credibility of Tawana Bradley.

Marcus is apparently the only black Celtic, other than Kyrie now, to have dealt with these things it seems. Haven't heard anything from anyone prior to this, besides the stereotypes from opposition fans that Bostonians are racist.

Heck, even Perk and IT4 have gone on record saying Boston crowds are tough, but explicitly mention that they're not racist.

I'm pretty done with Marcus too. Heart and soul my rear-end

Marcus wrote about this last year.  Not quite sure why you're surprised he'd say this now:

But the incident that has stuck with me the most, and that’s had the biggest impact on me, occurred a few years back after a victory at the Garden.

I was pulling out of the arena parking lot when I saw a white woman with her five- or six-year-old son crossing against the light right as the cars were starting to come at them. I had my windows down and realized something bad was about to happen, so I yelled to her, politely, that she needed to hurry and get out of the street so the two of them wouldn’t get hurt.

The woman was wearing an Isaiah Thomas number 4 Celts jersey. And there were all these other Celtics fans around who were at the game. I figured she’d be cool. 

Nope.

She swung her head around and it was….

“F*** you, you f***ing n-word!!!!”

https://www.theplayerstribune.com/posts/marcus-smart-nba-boston-celtics-covid-racial-injustice

TP.

This isn't the first time Marcus has spoken about his experience and he shouldn't be restricted from speaking about it. The same people railing against him in this thread and calling for him to be traded, are the first ones to shout about PC culture and free speech. Interesting how the tables turn.

I've had some racially charged experiences in my life - a few when I lived in the South - but the most frightening one was when I was going to college in Boston. I've told this story before, but when I told my family of my decision to go to school in Boston, my grandmother basically staged in intervention to try to talk me out of it because of the racist rep it has. Granted, the city has come a long way from the days of Bill Russell. But it's not nearly as progressive as it thinks it is because people would prefer to pretend things like this don't still happen there with the frequency it does instead of confronting it head on.

TP to you too.

It's unfortunate the denial that exists of the level of racism that exists in Boston.  It's here, let's work on it.  And it's not just in the structural racism, which is very prevalent, but also with some fans that enter the Garden.  I've been to one Celtics home game, and the chorus of epithets and slurs hurled from the fans around me in the cheap seats made me so uncomfortable that I've never returned to a game there.  It was during the Pierce-Walker era, so a bit ago, but certainly not ancient history.  I've been to numerous games in other cities to cheer on the visiting Celtics and have literally never heard even a fraction of what I heard that one game in Boston.  And it's not to say those areas weren't racist -- my friend who drove me home from one of those games got pulled over immediately after entering my majority white suburb because a black man driving a BMW at 11:30 at night could only mean one thing -- but I didn't hear it in the arena.

Maybe it's better now.  I hope it is, as I have a kindergartner who loves Jaylen Brown and is begging to go to a game.  I know both the Celtics specifically and the NBA in general has made a real effort to curtail that behavior in the past 10 or so years.  But the likelihood that it's gone completely is pretty low, and there's no reason for me to doubt what Smart said.

For the record, I hate Kyrie.  He quit on this team, same as he quit on his team in Cleveland.  He's earned the vilification he will hopefully receive every time he steps on the court in Boston.  But there's also no reason for people on this board to get upset with Smart over this.  He's spoken about his experience before, and when it came up now because of Kyrie, he wasn't going to suddenly say what happened to him didn't happen.

[Roy H.]

It feels like forever ago, but last season there was a fan suspended for calling DeMarcus Cousins the N word.

It sounds like the kid was a punk, but there wasn’t a single witness who heard anything racial.

[RJ87]

Marcus Smart fueling the anti-Boston flames:

When asked whether he has heard racial remarks made against opposing players from the Boston crowd, Smart confirmed he witnessed at least a few interactions.

“Yeah, I’ve heard a couple of them,” Smart said after practice Thursday. “It’s kind of sad and sickening. Even though it’s an opposing team, we’ve had guys on your home team that you’re saying these racial slurs and you expect us to go out here and play for you. It’s tough.”

Why comment at all?  I hope that he’s traded this off-season.

I’m not sure I trust Marcus here.  He happens to be the only person in America who heard a Texas Tech fan shout the N-word at him before going into the stands to attack him.  He says a woman outside the TD Garden loudly shouted the N-wordat him when he was doing a good deed.  Again, no witnesses or corroboration.  To me, he’s got all the credibility of Tawana Bradley.

Marcus is apparently the only black Celtic, other than Kyrie now, to have dealt with these things it seems. Haven't heard anything from anyone prior to this, besides the stereotypes from opposition fans that Bostonians are racist.

Heck, even Perk and IT4 have gone on record saying Boston crowds are tough, but explicitly mention that they're not racist.

I'm pretty done with Marcus too. Heart and soul my rear-end

Marcus wrote about this last year.  Not quite sure why you're surprised he'd say this now:

But the incident that has stuck with me the most, and that’s had the biggest impact on me, occurred a few years back after a victory at the Garden.

I was pulling out of the arena parking lot when I saw a white woman with her five- or six-year-old son crossing against the light right as the cars were starting to come at them. I had my windows down and realized something bad was about to happen, so I yelled to her, politely, that she needed to hurry and get out of the street so the two of them wouldn’t get hurt.

The woman was wearing an Isaiah Thomas number 4 Celts jersey. And there were all these other Celtics fans around who were at the game. I figured she’d be cool. 

Nope.

She swung her head around and it was….

“F*** you, you f***ing n-word!!!!”

https://www.theplayerstribune.com/posts/marcus-smart-nba-boston-celtics-covid-racial-injustice

TP.

This isn't the first time Marcus has spoken about his experience and he shouldn't be restricted from speaking about it. The same people railing against him in this thread and calling for him to be traded, are the first ones to shout about PC culture and free speech. Interesting how the tables turn.

I've had some racially charged experiences in my life - a few when I lived in the South - but the most frightening one was when I was going to college in Boston. I've told this story before, but when I told my family of my decision to go to school in Boston, my grandmother basically staged in intervention to try to talk me out of it because of the racist rep it has. Granted, the city has come a long way from the days of Bill Russell. But it's not nearly as progressive as it thinks it is because people would prefer to pretend things like this don't still happen there with the frequency it does instead of confronting it head on.

TP to you too.

It's unfortunate the denial that exists of the level of racism that exists in Boston.  It's here, let's work on it.  And it's not just in the structural racism, which is very prevalent, but also with some fans that enter the Garden.  I've been to one Celtics home game, and the chorus of epithets and slurs hurled from the fans around me in the cheap seats made me so uncomfortable that I've never returned to a game there.  It was during the Pierce-Walker era, so a bit ago, but certainly not ancient history.  I've been to numerous games in other cities to cheer on the visiting Celtics and have literally never heard even a fraction of what I heard that one game in Boston.  And it's not to say those areas weren't racist -- my friend who drove me home from one of those games got pulled over immediately after entering my majority white suburb because a black man driving a BMW at 11:30 at night could only mean one thing -- but I didn't hear it in the arena.

Maybe it's better now.  I hope it is, as I have a kindergartner who loves Jaylen Brown and is begging to go to a game.  I know both the Celtics specifically and the NBA in general has made a real effort to curtail that behavior in the past 10 or so years.  But the likelihood that it's gone completely is pretty low, and there's no reason for me to doubt what Smart said.

For the record, I hate Kyrie.  He quit on this team, same as he quit on his team in Cleveland.  He's earned the vilification he will hopefully receive every time he steps on the court in Boston.  But there's also no reason for people on this board to get upset with Smart over this.  He's spoken about his experience before, and when it came up now because of Kyrie, he wasn't going to suddenly say what happened to him didn't happen.

Kyrie certainly isn't the best messenger, and that's probably influenced the reactions in this thread quite a bit. But it's still disappointing to see so many rush to discredit, dismiss, and deflect. Marcus was asked a question and he answered based on his experience, he didn't paint the city as a whole as racist.  People are projecting their own issues onto his comments.

[Roy H.]

Marcus Smart fueling the anti-Boston flames:

When asked whether he has heard racial remarks made against opposing players from the Boston crowd, Smart confirmed he witnessed at least a few interactions.

“Yeah, I’ve heard a couple of them,” Smart said after practice Thursday. “It’s kind of sad and sickening. Even though it’s an opposing team, we’ve had guys on your home team that you’re saying these racial slurs and you expect us to go out here and play for you. It’s tough.”

Why comment at all?  I hope that he’s traded this off-season.

I’m not sure I trust Marcus here.  He happens to be the only person in America who heard a Texas Tech fan shout the N-word at him before going into the stands to attack him.  He says a woman outside the TD Garden loudly shouted the N-wordat him when he was doing a good deed.  Again, no witnesses or corroboration.  To me, he’s got all the credibility of Tawana Bradley.

Marcus is apparently the only black Celtic, other than Kyrie now, to have dealt with these things it seems. Haven't heard anything from anyone prior to this, besides the stereotypes from opposition fans that Bostonians are racist.

Heck, even Perk and IT4 have gone on record saying Boston crowds are tough, but explicitly mention that they're not racist.

I'm pretty done with Marcus too. Heart and soul my rear-end

Marcus wrote about this last year.  Not quite sure why you're surprised he'd say this now:

But the incident that has stuck with me the most, and that’s had the biggest impact on me, occurred a few years back after a victory at the Garden.

I was pulling out of the arena parking lot when I saw a white woman with her five- or six-year-old son crossing against the light right as the cars were starting to come at them. I had my windows down and realized something bad was about to happen, so I yelled to her, politely, that she needed to hurry and get out of the street so the two of them wouldn’t get hurt.

The woman was wearing an Isaiah Thomas number 4 Celts jersey. And there were all these other Celtics fans around who were at the game. I figured she’d be cool. 

Nope.

She swung her head around and it was….

“F*** you, you f***ing n-word!!!!”

https://www.theplayerstribune.com/posts/marcus-smart-nba-boston-celtics-covid-racial-injustice

TP.

This isn't the first time Marcus has spoken about his experience and he shouldn't be restricted from speaking about it. The same people railing against him in this thread and calling for him to be traded, are the first ones to shout about PC culture and free speech. Interesting how the tables turn.

I've had some racially charged experiences in my life - a few when I lived in the South - but the most frightening one was when I was going to college in Boston. I've told this story before, but when I told my family of my decision to go to school in Boston, my grandmother basically staged in intervention to try to talk me out of it because of the racist rep it has. Granted, the city has come a long way from the days of Bill Russell. But it's not nearly as progressive as it thinks it is because people would prefer to pretend things like this don't still happen there with the frequency it does instead of confronting it head on.

TP to you too.

It's unfortunate the denial that exists of the level of racism that exists in Boston.  It's here, let's work on it.  And it's not just in the structural racism, which is very prevalent, but also with some fans that enter the Garden.  I've been to one Celtics home game, and the chorus of epithets and slurs hurled from the fans around me in the cheap seats made me so uncomfortable that I've never returned to a game there.  It was during the Pierce-Walker era, so a bit ago, but certainly not ancient history.  I've been to numerous games in other cities to cheer on the visiting Celtics and have literally never heard even a fraction of what I heard that one game in Boston.  And it's not to say those areas weren't racist -- my friend who drove me home from one of those games got pulled over immediately after entering my majority white suburb because a black man driving a BMW at 11:30 at night could only mean one thing -- but I didn't hear it in the arena.

Maybe it's better now.  I hope it is, as I have a kindergartner who loves Jaylen Brown and is begging to go to a game.  I know both the Celtics specifically and the NBA in general has made a real effort to curtail that behavior in the past 10 or so years.  But the likelihood that it's gone completely is pretty low, and there's no reason for me to doubt what Smart said.

For the record, I hate Kyrie.  He quit on this team, same as he quit on his team in Cleveland.  He's earned the vilification he will hopefully receive every time he steps on the court in Boston.  But there's also no reason for people on this board to get upset with Smart over this.  He's spoken about his experience before, and when it came up now because of Kyrie, he wasn't going to suddenly say what happened to him didn't happen.

Kyrie certainly isn't the best messenger, and that's probably influenced the reactions in this thread quite a bit. But it's still disappointing to see so many rush to discredit, dismiss, and deflect. Marcus was asked a question and he answered based on his experience, he didn't paint the city as a whole as racist.  People are projecting their own issues onto his comments.

What’s your take on why Marcus is the only person hearing these things, both in Boston and while in college?

[Tr1boy]

Marcus Smart fueling the anti-Boston flames:

When asked whether he has heard racial remarks made against opposing players from the Boston crowd, Smart confirmed he witnessed at least a few interactions.

“Yeah, I’ve heard a couple of them,” Smart said after practice Thursday. “It’s kind of sad and sickening. Even though it’s an opposing team, we’ve had guys on your home team that you’re saying these racial slurs and you expect us to go out here and play for you. It’s tough.”

Why comment at all?  I hope that he’s traded this off-season.

I’m not sure I trust Marcus here.  He happens to be the only person in America who heard a Texas Tech fan shout the N-word at him before going into the stands to attack him.  He says a woman outside the TD Garden loudly shouted the N-wordat him when he was doing a good deed.  Again, no witnesses or corroboration.  To me, he’s got all the credibility of Tawana Bradley.

Marcus is apparently the only black Celtic, other than Kyrie now, to have dealt with these things it seems. Haven't heard anything from anyone prior to this, besides the stereotypes from opposition fans that Bostonians are racist.

Heck, even Perk and IT4 have gone on record saying Boston crowds are tough, but explicitly mention that they're not racist.

I'm pretty done with Marcus too. Heart and soul my rear-end

Marcus wrote about this last year.  Not quite sure why you're surprised he'd say this now:

But the incident that has stuck with me the most, and that’s had the biggest impact on me, occurred a few years back after a victory at the Garden.

I was pulling out of the arena parking lot when I saw a white woman with her five- or six-year-old son crossing against the light right as the cars were starting to come at them. I had my windows down and realized something bad was about to happen, so I yelled to her, politely, that she needed to hurry and get out of the street so the two of them wouldn’t get hurt.

The woman was wearing an Isaiah Thomas number 4 Celts jersey. And there were all these other Celtics fans around who were at the game. I figured she’d be cool. 

Nope.

She swung her head around and it was….

“F*** you, you f***ing n-word!!!!”

https://www.theplayerstribune.com/posts/marcus-smart-nba-boston-celtics-covid-racial-injustice

TP.

This isn't the first time Marcus has spoken about his experience and he shouldn't be restricted from speaking about it. The same people railing against him in this thread and calling for him to be traded, are the first ones to shout about PC culture and free speech. Interesting how the tables turn.

I've had some racially charged experiences in my life - a few when I lived in the South - but the most frightening one was when I was going to college in Boston. I've told this story before, but when I told my family of my decision to go to school in Boston, my grandmother basically staged in intervention to try to talk me out of it because of the racist rep it has. Granted, the city has come a long way from the days of Bill Russell. But it's not nearly as progressive as it thinks it is because people would prefer to pretend things like this don't still happen there with the frequency it does instead of confronting it head on.

TP to you too.

It's unfortunate the denial that exists of the level of racism that exists in Boston.  It's here, let's work on it.  And it's not just in the structural racism, which is very prevalent, but also with some fans that enter the Garden.  I've been to one Celtics home game, and the chorus of epithets and slurs hurled from the fans around me in the cheap seats made me so uncomfortable that I've never returned to a game there.  It was during the Pierce-Walker era, so a bit ago, but certainly not ancient history.  I've been to numerous games in other cities to cheer on the visiting Celtics and have literally never heard even a fraction of what I heard that one game in Boston.  And it's not to say those areas weren't racist -- my friend who drove me home from one of those games got pulled over immediately after entering my majority white suburb because a black man driving a BMW at 11:30 at night could only mean one thing -- but I didn't hear it in the arena.

Maybe it's better now.  I hope it is, as I have a kindergartner who loves Jaylen Brown and is begging to go to a game.  I know both the Celtics specifically and the NBA in general has made a real effort to curtail that behavior in the past 10 or so years.  But the likelihood that it's gone completely is pretty low, and there's no reason for me to doubt what Smart said.

For the record, I hate Kyrie.  He quit on this team, same as he quit on his team in Cleveland.  He's earned the vilification he will hopefully receive every time he steps on the court in Boston.  But there's also no reason for people on this board to get upset with Smart over this.  He's spoken about his experience before, and when it came up now because of Kyrie, he wasn't going to suddenly say what happened to him didn't happen.

Kyrie certainly isn't the best messenger, and that's probably influenced the reactions in this thread quite a bit. But it's still disappointing to see so many rush to discredit, dismiss, and deflect. Marcus was asked a question and he answered based on his experience, he didn't paint the city as a whole as racist.  People are projecting their own issues onto his comments.

It's based on perception and adding fuel to fire

No specifics in fire. It just rages out of control

If Marcus had a bad experience(s)... it is sad that it happened. Those racist fools should be put in jail...

My point is... say in a family household.  Your dad and mom etc are extremly hard on you. But there is good in that, as one learns later. And when you succeed ...  speech = (with anger behind it) "my parents made me so mad, they made me work long hours, couldnt wait to move out, I hated them... but I'm successful because of it."

See what is wrong with this response??

Look at the response from Perkins.  He stated he enjoyed his experience in Boston... but also went through racist experience back at home Texas.. He never makes a "blanket" statement that the fans (cant identify, so as a whole guilty by association mindset).

[nickagneta]

It feels like forever ago, but last season there was a fan suspended for calling DeMarcus Cousins the N word.

It sounds like the kid was a punk, but there wasn’t a single witness who heard anything racial.

Or there were witnesses and no one wanted to get involved. And the same thing could have happened to Smart. People could have witnessed it and didn't want to get involved.

I can understand if someone is using their relative's or their friend's season tickets not wanting to rock the boat and get involved in a racial issue that could cause problems for the seat's season ticket holder.

Many black athlete's have complained about racial slurs thrown their way in Boston. I have heard it at Celtics, Bruins and Red Sox games. I am sure many others have as well. The worst I ever heard was stuff thrown P.K. Suban's way during a Bruins playoff game. It was alarming.

But, my guess is, and recent events in NY and Utah confirm this, that racist remarks towards players happen everywhere. I don't think Boston has any more or less racism than other large cities. It exists everywhere and I think racists, in general, have felt more empowered to be overt in their racism given recent national events over the last 4 years.

The worst racism I have seen and heard happened in Florida, Texas, Vermont and New Hampshire. But as I said, it's everywhere and that's unfortunate for this country. And I am not sure it's going away anytime soon.

The movie Bulworth had a great idea to end racism....everyone have sex with everyone until we're all the same color. Always thought that hysterical and very apt.

[Tr1boy]

If Marcus went through bad experiences and dislikes the city... I wouldnt be surprise if he is either traded or walks after next season

It is his right to be comfortable

But also find it strange that he asked Danny if he was going to trade him before the deadline. Sounds like he didnt want that to happen

I have no idea what he really wants. I guess when contract extension talks come up and media asks him... we will see

[Roy H.]

It feels like forever ago, but last season there was a fan suspended for calling DeMarcus Cousins the N word.

It sounds like the kid was a punk, but there wasn’t a single witness who heard anything racial.

Or there were witnesses and no one wanted to get involved. And the same thing could have happened to Smart. People could have witnessed it and didn't want to get involved.

The police and security officials felt that way, too?  And same thing regarding Marcus' incident at the OK State / Texas Tech game?  If something is yelled in an arena with hundreds of people within hearing distance, you would assume that more than one person would hear it.  You would think the people around the racist shouter would have a visible reaction to a slur being said, which might be caught on camera.  There's got to be some evidence, somewhere.  And if not, the strong likelihood it didn't happen.

Regarding your own incidents, why not grab an usher or security?  Or turn on your phone and shame these folks on social media?

[nickagneta]

It feels like forever ago, but last season there was a fan suspended for calling DeMarcus Cousins the N word.

It sounds like the kid was a punk, but there wasn’t a single witness who heard anything racial.

Or there were witnesses and no one wanted to get involved. And the same thing could have happened to Smart. People could have witnessed it and didn't want to get involved.

The police and security officials felt that way, too?  And same thing regarding Marcus' incident at the OK State / Texas Tech game?  If something is yelled in an arena with hundreds of people within hearing distance, you would assume that more than one person would hear it.  You would think the people around the racist shouter would have a visible reaction to a slur being said, which might be caught on camera.  There's got to be some evidence, somewhere.  And if not, the strong likelihood it didn't happen.

Regarding your own incidents, why not grab an usher or security?  Or turn on your phone and shame these folks on social media?

Why? Because I didn't want to get involved. You never know what people who openly talk like that might do in retaliation to either me or my friends that owned those seats. People who call out other's racism usually don't get treated very well by the racists.

When I am using someone else's tickets the last thing I want to do is something that might put that person in a tough situation. I go to watch games, not to be dragged into circumstances that don't involve me or would cause me to miss the game because I am too busy being the race police, talking with security and having to go make statements after the game so that a person is properly punished.

If Fenway and the Garden want to extinguish these things from happening they need to put more security and ushers in the stands and police it themselves. Identifying racist idiots to them is not why I go to games.

[Roy H.]

It feels like forever ago, but last season there was a fan suspended for calling DeMarcus Cousins the N word.

It sounds like the kid was a punk, but there wasn’t a single witness who heard anything racial.

Or there were witnesses and no one wanted to get involved. And the same thing could have happened to Smart. People could have witnessed it and didn't want to get involved.

The police and security officials felt that way, too?  And same thing regarding Marcus' incident at the OK State / Texas Tech game?  If something is yelled in an arena with hundreds of people within hearing distance, you would assume that more than one person would hear it.  You would think the people around the racist shouter would have a visible reaction to a slur being said, which might be caught on camera.  There's got to be some evidence, somewhere.  And if not, the strong likelihood it didn't happen.

Regarding your own incidents, why not grab an usher or security?  Or turn on your phone and shame these folks on social media?

Why? Because I didn't want to get involved. You never know what people who openly talk like that might do in retaliation to either me or my friends that owned those seats.

When I am using someone else's tickets the last thing I want to do is something that might put that person in a tough situation. I go to watch games, not to be dragged into circumstances that don't involve me or would cause me to miss the game because I am too busy being the race police, talking with security and having to go make statements after the game so that a person is properly punished.

If Fenway and the Garden want to extinguish these things from happening they need to put more security and ushers in the stands and police it themselves. Identifying racist idiots to them is not why I go to games.

I guess that’s understandable, but it’s too bad. I would report something like that, because somebody has to stand up against racism.  I don’t think I could enjoy the game if there was a guy hollering racial slurs within my earshot.

I guess I would like all of us to be the “race police”.  See something, say something.

[RJ87]

If Marcus went through bad experiences and dislikes the city... I wouldnt be surprise if he is either traded or walks after next season

It is his right to be comfortable

But also find it strange that he asked Danny if he was going to trade him before the deadline. Sounds like he didnt want that to happen

I have no idea what he really wants. I guess when contract extension talks come up and media asks him... we will see

I don't recall Marcus saying he disliked the city. That's what I meant when I said people are projecting their own issues and insecurities onto what he said. He's actually gone on record in saying how much he loves Boston and how the city embraced him. Both things can be true: he could've had bad experiences and he can also enjoy living in Boston.

[Tr1boy]

If Marcus went through bad experiences and dislikes the city... I wouldnt be surprise if he is either traded or walks after next season

It is his right to be comfortable

But also find it strange that he asked Danny if he was going to trade him before the deadline. Sounds like he didnt want that to happen

I have no idea what he really wants. I guess when contract extension talks come up and media asks him... we will see

I don't recall Marcus saying he disliked the city. That's what I meant when I said people are projecting their own issues and insecurities onto what he said. He's actually gone on record in saying how much he loves Boston and how the city embraced him. Both things can be true: he could've had bad experiences and he can also enjoy living in Boston.

I get it... but if you listen to his presser yesterday

Thats not how it is portrayed

The tone was "the city/fans can do better".. doubling up on Irving

So most fans are racists hecklers?? Thats not true

The bad apples shouldnt taint the overall decent but passionate fans

[Roy H.]

If Marcus went through bad experiences and dislikes the city... I wouldnt be surprise if he is either traded or walks after next season

It is his right to be comfortable

But also find it strange that he asked Danny if he was going to trade him before the deadline. Sounds like he didnt want that to happen

I have no idea what he really wants. I guess when contract extension talks come up and media asks him... we will see

I don't recall Marcus saying he disliked the city. That's what I meant when I said people are projecting their own issues and insecurities onto what he said. He's actually gone on record in saying how much he loves Boston and how the city embraced him. Both things can be true: he could've had bad experiences and he can also enjoy living in Boston.

Partly it is the context and timing of it.  It implicitly validates Kyrie.  Marcus said nothing to defend the fans. Even if the slurs did in fact happen a couple of times, that’s twice out of hundreds of home games.  Doing very rough math, let’s say Marcus has played 250 home games, times 20,000 fans at each game. That’s 5 million fan interactions potentially, and he says it has happened a couple of times?

Adding to that is the statement “Even though it’s an opposing team, we’ve had guys on your home team that you’re saying these racial slurs and you expect us to go out here and play for you. It’s tough.”

The fact that Marcus focuses on two fans out of 5 million, and says he has a hard time playing for those fans, sure makes it seem like he is painting everybody with the same brush.

Lastly, there’s the total lack of evidence.