The NBA Fun Police just put out an APB for good times.
Details are still scarce, but a fan at what appears to be Wednesday’s Bucks-Pistons matchup apparently enjoyed himself a little too much — or as much is possible at a last-place Bucks home game. Reddit user “put_bacon_on_it” posted a picture, saying that his friend was issued the red warning card for “comments, gestures and/or behaviors that [he] directed at players, coaches, game officials and/or other spectators.” The warning goes on to threaten removal from the game if the fan so much as thinks about booing another player.
To be fair, the NBA has seen a rash of not-so-polite fan-player interactions recently. There was Dwight Howard throwing a ball at a heckler in Houston. There was Kevin Durant, who, heated during a game against the Blazers, told an aggressive fan to please reconsider his actions and voice his concerns in a less confrontational manner — except not at all like that.
Before NBA fans across the country rush to their keyboard to complain about this apparent crackdown on fun in arenas, consider the location of the fan who received the card. His seat was immediately behind the basket, meaning the likelihood of TV cameras picking up any violent gestures was pretty high. Also, networks typically place microphones around the baselines and wouldn’t love having to dump their audio every five seconds because of an unruly fan. In all probability, this was a targeted and not general warning.
The logic might not comfort fans of notoriously raucous stadiums, like Golden State’s Oracle Arena and Portland’s Moda Center, but they’ll just have to politely disagree with the league or face removal from the discussion.
Check out the NBA’s new red warning cards below.
Photo via Twitter/@AlwaysWinning1
