Some fans don’t know the ledge and fall over headfirst. That happened Thursday night to a Sixers fan who took taunting Carmelo Anthony past the ledge.
In the Lakers’ game against Philadelphia, a pair of fans heckled Anthony by belittling him with “boy” taunts. Calling another grown man, especially a Black man, “boy” is an attempt to humiliate him and make him feel like he’s subservient.
Whether that was their overall intent or not is unknown. But what is known is that it had the desired effect, until it backfired on them.
According to Yahoo’s Chris Haynes, Anthony confronted the fans after hearing “get in the corner boy” and “keep shooting boy” one too many times.
“They’ve been riding him for about four straight possessions,” said the TNT announcer. “Melo started looking in their direction, the conversation continued, and now Melo has had enough.”
Security quickly got involved and ejected the fans from the game.
“It is what it is,” said Anthony. “Some things was said, unacceptable. I’m cool with fans heckling, fans talking trash, cheering for their team, or the other team. I’m all for that, but when you cross certain lines, as a man that’s what you’re gonna see, that’s what you gonna get. I’m sure the people that’s in charge will take care of it…My job is done when it comes to this.”
In the aftermath, one of the fans was banned for life from the Wells Fargo Center.
When asked about the punishment, Anthony replied that the decision had nothing to do with him.
“That’s not up to me. I’m not in control of that. Only thing I that I can do is — sometimes you play through it, you try to play through certain things, you play through the heckle, but that’s all fun and games. I’ve been doing that for 19-20 years. Especially coming here, it’s been a great place to come and play and I know how the fans are here. But there’s just certain things you don’t bring to any type of sporting event, just certain things you don’t say to anybody. If I was outside, I bumped into you, you said those things to me, then it would be a totally different story. But again, It’s out of my hands now. So however they want to play it, they will play it.”
In this case, those fans played it wrong.
Guess they didn’t know the ledge.
