A fan trying to snap a selfie with San Antonio Spurs player Victor Wembanyama got arrested and banned for life from all NBA venues, Yankee Scores reports…
This happened during the fourth quarter of an NBA Finals game at the Frost Bank Center.
The Incident
With 6:28 left in the game, the fan rushed the court, phone in hand, and approached Wembanyama.
As he tried to take a photo, Knicks center Mitchell Robinson and some security guards quickly tackled him off the floor. The disturbance definitely interrupted the flow of the game which had the Knicks leading 92-86 at the time.
“A second individual will also receive a lifetime ban for his role in the incident,” the NBA spokesperson confirmed to ESPN.
Wembanyama Caught Off Guard
Replays showed Victor Wembanyama looking both confused and smiling at his phone as the fan approached him. He said, “I’ve never been in that situation. I didn’t know how to react; it really caught me off guard.”
He even joked that it surprised him nearly as much as when a bat flew across the court before a game in January.
Just after security took care of the fan, there was another little hiccup. A Spurs guard, Dylan Harper, ended up in a scramble with Knicks’ Mikal Bridges for the ball.
Dylan lost control, and since the refs couldn’t figure out which team touched it last, they decided to just call for a jump ball. Wembanyama nabbed the win and the game kept going.
Juvenile Delinquency?
Later, the Bexar County District Attorney’s office revealed the fan was actually a juvenile.
They added they can’t discuss more details since it involves a minor.
Coach Mitch Johnson wasn’t too worried about the incident, brushing it off as no big deal after the game.
“I don’t think it was an event at all,” he said. “I thought security got him out of there and everybody moved on to the next play.”
Fans’ Disruption of Games
NBA commissioner Adam Silver said Thursday that the issue of spectators running onto the court during games is “unfortunately part of all sports.”
“I even hesitate to describe that person as a fan,” Silver said, after attending a community service event in San Antonio. “They seemed to have an ulterior motive for doing so. … The other side of the coin of global attention is that somebody realizes there’s an enormous platform to do stupid things. … They will be banned for life, not just from [Frost Bank Center] but every arena in the NBA. The consequences are dramatic if you do this.”
