During the Sixers 105-87 victory on Thursday night over the visiting Los Angeles Lakers, there was an incident involving a fan who was was eventually ejected from Wells Fargo Center. And now it sounds like he won’t be allowed back anytime soon.
Midway through the fourth quarter, Carmelo Anthony appeared to walk towards the scorer’s table but he wasn’t going to pay his respects to Kate Scott or Ian Eagle. It turns out he was confronting a fan who’d been harassing him.
ESPN’s Dave McMenamin reported Friday evening:
“A 76ers spokesperson told ESPN that an investigation conducted in the last 24 hours since the Sixers-Lakers game resulted in the fan who targeted Carmelo Anthony being banned indefinitely from all future 76ers games, as well as all future events at Wells Fargo Center.”
Chris Haynes with Yahoo Sports was the first to let us know what the commotion was all about.
Sixers fan that was ejected for taunting Los Angeles Lakers star Carmelo Anthony kept calling him a “boy” and yelling “get in the corner boy” and “keeping shooting boy,” league sources tell @YahooSports.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) January 28, 2022
The fan repeatedly called the Los Angeles forward and future Hall of Famer “boy,” per the ESPN report. It also indicated that Anthony felt this was out of line, and not the sort of thing he’s gotten used to in Philadelphia.
“While Philadelphia sports fans certainly have a reputation, Anthony said that Thursday’s incident didn’t line up with his past experiences with the city as a visiting player.
“You play through the heckles. But that’s all fun and games,” he said. “I mean, I’ve been doing that for 19, 20 years. Especially playing here, it’s been a great place to come in and play. And fans, I know how the fans are here.”
The report also quotes Joel Embiid, who was in the game at the time, and tried to keep things calm.
More from McMenamin, quoting Embiid:
“I was just trying to calm the situation because they were just going back and forth, and I really wanted to just go home and finish the game,” Embiid said. “So, yes, that’s what I wanted, to calm the situation down so we could play and move on.”
It sounds like appropriate action was taken and the fan who was behaving out of line has been dealt with. The Sixers had no trouble beating the LeBron Jamesless Lakers, despite a big performance from Anthony Davis. But it wasn’t enough to slow down Joel Embiid and the Sixers.