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

[Celtics2021]

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.

I was the “race police” once, at a minor league baseball game.  Turned out the dude was a cop.  Usher went to talk to him, didn’t kick him out from my reporting him.  The umpire finally kicked the guy out a couple innings later.  I was scared the whole way back that he or his cop friends would find me some how, even though my reporting him wasn’t what got him removed.

I’m never being the race police again.  It was frightening and I wasn’t listened to.

[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.

I was the “race police” once, at a minor league baseball game.  Turned out the dude was a cop.  Usher went to talk to him, didn’t kick him out from my reporting him.  The umpire finally kicked the guy out a couple innings later.  I was scared the whole way back that he or his cop friends would find me some how, even though my reporting him wasn’t what got him removed.

I’m never being the race police again.  It was frightening and I wasn’t listened to.

I’m sorry that that is the lesson you took away from that, and I’m sorry that nobody else backed you up.

I guess I’m just naturally confrontational, because I speak out about just about anything that upsets me or my family.  I don’t let people abuse others.

[Amonkey]

As others have said it before, I find it odd how people are so quickly to dismiss these events when a player speaks up. Listen, I do think the overall majority of people are good people and don't go low in these situations, but is it really unimaginable that there are Edited.  Profanity and masked profanity are against forum rules and may result in discipline.s in all of our surrounding? Take the Utah game for example, there were 3 people being disrespectful but the fans themselves pointing it out and backed the guy. That is commendable.

I think a lot of people don't want to create trouble so when they see something that is not happening to them directly, they might not say something. It doesn't mean they agree with it but they just want to stay out of it. It's equivalent to a homeless man urinating in a public bus (which happened one time and people just moved away and the bus took care of him). Or when a drunk started yelling nonsense at me. I looked around and people just rolled their eye, not at me, but at the guy being a Edited.  Profanity and masked profanity are against forum rules and may result in discipline..

Overall, it's not out of realm of possibility that people have said bad things at games, just like at other places. If you are the one that have had that directed to, or seen done to others, it's not your job to normalize those behaviors or speak up so people start calling you to be traded. You don't think it's odd that besides a couple of former players, there aren't many players defending the city?

Lastly, this past year alone I had an openly white supremacist coming to my gym with no shame. We had a driver who was delivering food to covid families have the n-word yelled at him and called other bikers to continue to yell. I recognize that it is a minority of people that feel that way, but to dismiss people when they say these things and asking for proof instead of recognizing it is not the way to be.

[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.

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.

He was specifically asked if he had heard any of the things Kyrie mentioned. I don't know how he escapes the timing or context of it, because both are attached to the question. With that said, when he first wrote about racism in Boston last year, he also mentioned marching in Boston and how moved he was by that.

And as far him saying it's hard for him to play in front of fans who say things like that, I don't have an issue with that because that's probably how he felt. I don't believe he meant every single fan, but I also think it's difficult to put into words just how it feels is to be called the n-word. It's surprising and overwhelming. It feels like someone threw a bowling ball directly into your gut and you can't breath. It's demoralizing and he probably still thinks about it.

As far as proof, what's the point of him lying? All he'd get from it apparently is people questioning him and calling for him to be traded.

[kraidstar]

I'm with Roy on this one.

I've been to hundreds of live sporting events in New England. Never heard anything racist even once. Every venue I've ever been to is crawling with security and ushers. Including TD Garden.

 I find it very hard to believe that these events are anything more than an outlier.  There is security everywhere, there are racially-conscious people everywhere, there are cameras all over the place and microphones down on the court. Modern day arenas are a very poor place to practice racism.

 I heckle opposing teams pretty frequently.  I make sure to keep the language "pg" though because I know I would be instantly thrown out otherwise.  The idea of hurling racial epithets around is unimaginable.

How exactly are they getting away with this?

[kraidstar]

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.

He was specifically asked if he had heard any of the things Kyrie mentioned. I don't know how he escapes the timing or context of it, because both are attached to the question. With that said, when he first wrote about racism in Boston last year, he also mentioned marching in Boston and how moved he was by that.

And as far him saying it's hard for him to play in front of fans who say things like that, I don't have an issue with that because that's probably how he felt. I don't believe he meant every single fan, but I also think it's difficult to put into words just how it feels is to be called the n-word. It's surprising and overwhelming. It feels like someone threw a bowling ball directly into your gut and you can't breath. It's demoralizing and he probably still thinks about it.

As far as proof, what's the point of him lying? All he'd get from it apparently is people questioning him and calling for him to be traded.

Kyrie is throwing the whole city under the bus and Smart validated him. It would be one thing if Kyrie was doing this for altruistic reasons,  or if he had any semblance of credibility. But he is literally slandering the city to take the attention away from his own narcissistic behavior.

Smart should 100% take the context of this into account. It is unfair and messed up that the national media keeps piling on about this and singling out Boston when you have other cities that are far worse.

A lot of folks in the media have always resented the Celtics because Bird, McHale, and Ainge were white and Magic et al were black ( I think some of them have an axe to grind with Brady and Belichick as well). The rest of the history is irrelevant because the generation who crafted this narrative grew up in the 80's and not before.

 If there are incidents happening here then I would be really shocked if they are not happening elsewhere too. Which begs the question as to why the focus is on here and not everywhere. And that goes back to my previous point. There is a lot of anger and jealousy directed at our region because of the success we've had and the history.

[Celtics2021]

I'm with Roy on this one.

I've been to hundreds of live sporting events in New England. Never heard anything racist even once. Every venue I've ever been to is crawling with security and ushers. Including TD Garden.

 I find it very hard to believe that these events are anything more than an outlier.  There is security everywhere, there are racially-conscious people everywhere, there are cameras all over the place and microphones down on the court. Modern day arenas are a very poor place to practice racism.

 I heckle opposing teams pretty frequently.  I make sure to keep the language "pg" though because I know I would be instantly thrown out otherwise.  The idea of hurling racial epithets around is unimaginable.

How exactly are they getting away with this?

I've been to roughly 40 New England sporting events (not being a native) and 60-70 elsewhere.  I've had two experiences here, with the language directed at Jason Kidd in the Garden and Aaron Hicks, when he was in the Twins minor league system playing at New Hampshire.  I've had zero elsewhere.  It's rare, it certainly has been a very small minority of my experiences, but it's also made them some of the more memorable experiences, unfortunately.  Of the games in New England I remember most clearly, it's been those two, an amazing catch by Jason Repko in Pawtucket (which is now scrubbed from the internet and will have to live on in my memory), and the only time I got to see Pedro in person.  In other words, even though it's been maybe 5% of my experience, it feels closer to 50%.  It sticks with you.  And it sucks.

[Roy H.]

Ja Morant, in a tweet posted later Thursday, agreed with Utah's decision to ban the fans, writing, "my family should be able [to] cheer for me & my teammates without getting inappropriate s--- said to them."

Morant went on to write that his family told him they "felt the love from all the other jazz fans who were around them" and that it was just the three fans who "went too far."

Tee Morant said one fan made a sexually explicit remark to his wife, Jamie. Tee Morant, who was sitting a couple of seats over, confronted the man before security deescalated the situation, ejecting the Jazz fan.

According to Tee Morant, another Jazz fan told him, "I'll put a nickel in your back and watch you dance, boy." Several other Jazz fans, who had been enjoying good-spirited trash talk with the Morants and their family friends, confronted that fan and alerted security. Tee Morant said he was shocked that the Jazz fan, who was ejected, made such a comment with the man's young daughter by his side.

The third fan who was ejected yelled at Jamie Morant, "Shut the f--- up, b----," Tee Morant said.

I have never understood fans who attack the families of players.

[Tr1boy]

Ja Morant, in a tweet posted later Thursday, agreed with Utah's decision to ban the fans, writing, "my family should be able [to] cheer for me & my teammates without getting inappropriate s--- said to them."

Morant went on to write that his family told him they "felt the love from all the other jazz fans who were around them" and that it was just the three fans who "went too far."

Tee Morant said one fan made a sexually explicit remark to his wife, Jamie. Tee Morant, who was sitting a couple of seats over, confronted the man before security deescalated the situation, ejecting the Jazz fan.

According to Tee Morant, another Jazz fan told him, "I'll put a nickel in your back and watch you dance, boy." Several other Jazz fans, who had been enjoying good-spirited trash talk with the Morants and their family friends, confronted that fan and alerted security. Tee Morant said he was shocked that the Jazz fan, who was ejected, made such a comment with the man's young daughter by his side.

The third fan who was ejected yelled at Jamie Morant, "Shut the f--- up, b----," Tee Morant said.

I have never understood fans who attack the families of players.

pressure point.  If a player sees their family in distress.  Head not in the game

Some fans will stoop the low of lows to try to win games

maybe they have thousands riding on the game

for these people, they kneel to money at all cost

[Ogaju]

Kyrie has y’all exactly where he wants you. He is winning. On and off the court. Smart was not smart on this one. His team is 2 games down, it needs all the edge it can muster going back home - joining your opponent to throw your city under the bus is not smart.

No comment is the best answer sometimes. I am concentrating on the next game is a good answer.

Odd that the same guy who backed up Kyrie’s dysfunctional relationship with the team also backs up Kyrie’s now successful attempt to cause the Celtics serious issues going forward.

Celtics  are in deep trouble here. Probably need to let Ainge go and throw some money at Ujiri.

[jambr380]

https://twitter.com/GwashburnGlobe/status/1398310987237822470?s=20

Tristan Thompson said he has heard racist comments from #Celtics fans while at TD Garden while with the #Cavaliers

Honestly, what the f- is going on here? Kyrie thoroughly destroyed the Cs and created a firestorm over an incident he only said he hoped wouldn't happen.

[nickagneta]

I said earlier in the thread the best thing for the Celtics to do is issue a "Next question!" comment when asked about this.

Instead we have comments from Brad, Smart, Thompson that are feeding the troll. Really dumb move of anyone associated with the team to make in responding to Kyrie.

[Tr1boy]

https://twitter.com/GwashburnGlobe/status/1398310987237822470?s=20

Tristan Thompson said he has heard racist comments from #Celtics fans while at TD Garden while with the #Cavaliers

Honestly, what the f- is going on here? Kyrie thoroughly destroyed the Cs and created a firestorm over an incident he only said he hoped wouldn't happen.

Tbh that was not the meat of the message.  Washburn what are you doing... where is the other part?

This was the the other part of Thompson message. Praising the fans also

https://twitter.com/RochieWBZ/status/1398314040527626258?s=20

[Roy H.]

Washburn what are you doing...

Race-baiting.

[radiohead]

Please Celtics, just win game 3 and shut Kyrie and KD up.