Ex-Boston Celtic and current Washington Wizards point guard Isaiah Thomas got himself ejected from a game the Philadelphia 76ers Saturday night for wading into the stands to have words with a pair of Sixers fans.
Evidently miffed they would not get a free frozen beverage as part of a promotion run by ice cream purveyor Dairy Queen, the fans offered up some verbal abuse peppered over a double helping of raised middle fingers directed at the Tacoma native.
The former King in the Fourth responded by making his way into the stands to have words with the duo, forcing his own ouster in the game’s final frame for leaving the floor to confront the pair.
After the game, the onetime Celtic told his side of the story, believing his response did not warrant further punishment despite violating a league rule against players intentionally entering the stands.
Isaiah Thomas was ejected for entering the stands and talking to a pair of Sixers fans #RepTheDistrict pic.twitter.com/aRqmvNWUQ2
— NBC Sports Wizards (@NBCSWizards) December 22, 2019
“The league knows: I did nothing wrong,” Thomas said in the post-game press conference (via the Washington Post’s Candace Buckner).
“There just should be a respect factor [with attendees]. Like, I’m not going to go to anybody else’s job and call you out of your name, no matter how mad I make you. I don’t even know how I can make you that mad when we were down 15. We lost the game. That’s all I’m saying.”
“I’m a man before anything, and that just wasn’t okay to do — and I just had to say something,” added IT.
The incident is not unlike a similar experience Marcus Smart had in a game this season against the Denver Nuggets where a taunting fan nearly elicited such a response from Boston’s defensive specialist — one of several such high-profile incidents making headlines for the wrong reasons recently.
At present it is unclear if the NBA will further sanction Thomas or the fans who sparked the incident: the latter two were ejected from the arena following the exchange, but the league’s zero tolerance policy for such behavior may bring further punishment to the duo.
“I didn’t scare nobody,” offered the reserve floor general of his confrontation with the pair, who evidently related their behavior was about losing the free frozen beverage, and not IT.
“I didn’t even use a curse word … so when the league investigates, I’m going to tell them the exact same thing — and hopefully they should understand it.
They may indeed, but they may view his response as a potential escalation regardless of how mild his countenance may have been in the exchange.
"A fan has both of his middle fingers up, and said 'F— you, b—-' three times. … I go in the stands to confront him. … His response was, 'I'm sorry. I just wanted a Frosty.'"
Isaiah Thomas explained why he went into the stands to confront a Sixers fan. pic.twitter.com/ZpYrmEHZKz
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) December 22, 2019
Regardless of how the league views the exchange from Thomas’ perspective, it’s clear the problem of fan abuse has not been adequately addressed, at least yet.
Thankfully, we haven’t seen anything like the nightmare that was the ‘Malice at the Palace‘, but until the NBA finds a way to address this kind of behavior in ways which prevent as much as punish after the fact, such an outcome is always a possibility.