A Wizards Assistant Coach Had To Be Restrained From Going After A Heckling Fan Behind The Bench

The Washington Wizards are in a spiral right now, having lost nine of their last 11 games including a 21-point loss at home to the Heat on Monday night in which they were dominated from the jump.

As the trade deadline approaches, there are plenty of rumors about what Washington might do to try and shake things up on their roster after their biggest offseason of Spencer Dinwiddie has not panned out as they hoped through 53 games so far next to Bradley Beal. Until then, they have to figure out how to dig themselves out of the hole they find themselves in and that is proving to be difficult and frustrating.

Those frustrations came to a head on Monday night in their loss to the Heat when in the closing minute some heckling fans (the one in the brown jacket, chiefly) crossed the line with their comments towards the Washington bench and caused an assistant coach to leap out of his seat to try and confront them, with Montrezl Harrell and Thomas Bryant stepping between to intervene and pull their coach away.

It’s hard to see exactly who it was from the Wizards staff as the video is from far away and Harrell is between the camera and the coach as they walk back to the locker room, but whomever it is, it’s obviously not a great look. Wes Unseld Jr. addressed the incident briefly after the game, saying a fan or group of fans were out of line with something they said, but also noted they have to “take the high road” in that situation.

It’s unfortunately becoming an all-too-common sight at NBA games for fans to get into it with players or coaches in a way that crosses the line, with a few examples of players stopping games to have fans ejected this season. The Washington faithful are understandably frustrated with the team’s current run of play, but that doesn’t excuse comments that get personal or go too far, as appeared to happen here.