Tristan Thompson of the Boston Celtics had a message for fans who might want to lash out at him in an inappropriate way during the playoffs: don’t even think about it. Seriously.
Thompson issued a warning to those type of unruly fans during a conversation with the media on Friday prior to the Celtics facing the Brooklyn Nets in Game 3, and let everyone know exactly how he was feeling. (Warning: the video below contains explicit language.)
“I dare a motherf***er to spit on me. I’ll follow you right to your house.”
Thompson’s comments come after a week that was crammed full of inappropriate and sometimes disgusting behavior by fans attending playoff games. Trae Young was spit on by a New York Knicks fan when the Atlanta Hawks faced the Knicks at Madison Square Garden earlier this week. Utah Jazz fans made inappropriate comments to Ja Morant’s family when the Jazz and Memphis Grizzlies faced off. Russell Westbrook of the Washington Wizards had to be held back by security after a Philadelphia 76ers fan dumped popcorn on him while he was leaving the game due to an ankle injury.
In all those cases, the offending fans were ejected and subsequently banned from those arenas.
Thompson heard racist comments from Celtics fans in the past
Thompson also discussed whether he’s heard racist comments from Celtics fans, which Kyrie Irving, former Celtics player who is currently on the Brooklyn Nets, has experienced in the past. Since Thompson has been on the Celtics this season, he hasn’t. But in the nine previous seasons, when he was on the Cleveland Cavaliers and coming to the TD Center as a visitor, he said he did.
“Um, yeah, of course, definitely. I mean, I think that’s what makes Boston fans special, not the racism part, but the part that they’re very into the game and they want to be the sixth man on the court with how they can get under our skin and taunt us and try to do that. I’ve definitely heard guys say some crazy stuff, but I think that they’re just trying to do that to try into the player’s head and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. At the end of the day, my experience, personally, being a Celtic, nobody has said anything racial to me as a player.
“As a visitor, it’s a different story. But I mean, if they choose to use those kind of words to get a player’s attention, that comes from their home training and the lack of home training, as my mom would say. So for us, me being a Celtic now, they’ve been great, they’ve embraced me with open arms and supported me. So hopefully they can be loud tonight and be a huge for us in the crowd tonight.”
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