Washington Wizards star Russell Westbrook called out a Philadelphia 76ers fan who dumped popcorn on him as he was leaving the court after injuring his right ankle. After the playoff game between the Wizards and 76ers on Wednesday night, Westbrook talked about the incident and wants the NBA to take action.
“To be completely honest, this s— is getting out of hand, especially for me,” Westbrook said. “The amount of disrespect, the amount of fans just doing whatever the f— they want to do – it’s just out of pocket,” Westbrook said as reported by ESPN. “There are certain things that cross the line. Any other setting … a guy were to come up on the street and pour popcorn on my head, you know what happens. In these arenas, you got to start protecting the players. We’ll see what the NBA does.”
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Fan dumping his popcorn on Russell Westbrook, who’s walking off after twisting his ankle. Fan should be banned for life. No room for this. pic.twitter.com/DXatcX8l9i
— Derek Bodner (@DerekBodnerNBA) May 27, 2021
On Thursday, the 76ers released a statement on the incident. “After an investigation into the incident that occurred at last night’s game, we have determined that the person involved will have his season ticket membership revoked effective immediately,” the team said. “In addition, he will be banned from all live events at Wells Fargo Center indefinitely. We apologize to Russell Westbrook and the Washington Wizards for being subjected to this type of unacceptable and disrespectful behavior. There is no place for it in our sports arena.”
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
A number of NBA players reacted to the fan pouring popcorn on Westbrook, including Lebron James. “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!!” James wrote on Twitter. “There’s cameras all over arenas so there’s no excuse!”
Westbrook has had his issues with fans over the years and can look the other way for the most part. But he couldn’t contain himself when food was thrown at him. “For me, there are a lot of incidents where fans, they say whatever, and the consequences for me are a lot more instrumental than to the fans in the stands because they feel they are untouchable,” Westbrook said. “To get food thrown on top of me, it’s just bulls—.”
