The Philadelphia 76ers cruised to a 120-95 win over the Wizards on Wednesday night to take firm control of their first round series at 2-0 before heading to Washington for Game 3 this weekend. Ben Simmons was very aggressive early on and he and Joel Embiid each had 22 points in what ended up being a pretty light night of work for the Sixers top stars.
However the conversation after the game was less on Philly’s dominance and more on what happened in the stands early in the fourth quarter as Russell Westbrook left the game with an ankle injury. As Westbrook was walking to the tunnel, a fan dumped popcorn on his head, eliciting a furious response from the star point guard.
Russell Westbrook appeared to have popcorn poured on his head by a fan on his way to the locker room with an apparent injury.
The fan was ejected from the game. pic.twitter.com/WgtvKMFYHH
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) May 27, 2021
For this to happen to anyone is unacceptable, but that Westbrook was leaving the court with an injury makes it all the more worse. The fan was ejected from the game, but Westbrook called out how “sh*t is out of hand” with fans being far too comfortable crossing the line in interactions with players. LeBron James echoed that on Twitter, as he said that players want to see the fan who dumped popcorn on Westbrook and called on the league to protect the players.
By the way WE AS THE PLAYERS wanna see who threw that popcorn on Russ while he was leaving the game tonight with a injury!! There’s cameras all over arenas so there’s no excuse! Cause if the
was on the other
.
#ProtectOurPlayers
— LeBron James (@KingJames) May 27, 2021
Luckily for LeBron, there was video of the fan dumping the popcorn and then being escorted out, and while the arena issued an apology for the incident and called it unacceptable, at minimum that fan should be banned from NBA games moving forward.
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) May 27, 2021
Wells Fargo Center statement on fan behavior at tonight’s Philadelphia 76ers game. pic.twitter.com/4GgNqYcdFp
— Wells Fargo Center (@WellsFargoCtr) May 27, 2021
James’ point is noted, if a player went at a fan in anything close to this manner, they’d face a hefty fine and probably a suspension. Players want to see fans who cross the line so flagrantly made examples out of in the same way, because throwing things on players is a way to get someone hurt or, as we saw many years ago in Detroit, spark something the league doesn’t ever want to see again.