A Boston Celtics fan was arrested after allegedly throwing a water bottle at Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving following a playoff game Sunday, the latest in a string of unruly fan behavior at NBA games in recent days.

What You Need To Know

  • A Boston Celtics fan was arrested and charged after allegedly throwing a water bottle at Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving following a playoff game between the two teams Sunday

  • According to the Boston Police Department, 21-year-old Cole Buckley was arrested in connection to the incident and has been charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon; the suspect also separately faces a lifetime ban from TD Garden

  • The inident is the latest in a string of unruly fan behavior at NBA games

  • In a statement issued last week after incidents at other games, the NBA said that “it is critical that we all show respect for players, officials and our fellow fans.”

According to the Boston Police Department, 21-year-old Cole Buckley was arrested in connection to the incident and has been charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. The suspect was released on bail and is due to appear in court Wednesday.

The suspect separately faces a lifetime ban from TD Garden, the home of the Boston Celtics, a spokesperson for the stadium said.

“A guest was arrested by Boston Police at the end of tonight’s Boston Celtics game for throwing an object,” the spokesperson said in a statement Sunday. “We will support and provide assistance to Boston Police as this incident is under review. We have zero tolerance for violations of our guest code of conduct, and the guest is subject to a lifetime ban from TD Garden.”

The incident was captured on video by YES Network following the Nets’ 141-126 victory in Sunday’s game, the fourth game in the playoff series between Brooklyn and Boston. Irving was heading into a tunnel following the game when an object that appeared to be a water bottle flew past his head.  

“It’s been that way in history, in terms of entertainment, performers and sports for a long period of time and just underlying racism and just treating people like they’re in a human zoo,” Irving said after Sunday’s game. “Throwing stuff at them, saying things. There’s a certain point where it just gets to be too much.”

“Fans have got to grow up at some point,” Irving’s teammate Kevin Durant said. “I know that being in the house for a year and a half with the pandemic has got a lot of people on edge, has got a lot of people stressed out. But when you come to these games you’ve got to realize: These men are human. We’re not animals. We’re not in the circus.”

“You coming to the game is not all about you as a fan,” Durant continued. “So have some respect for the game. Have some respect for the human beings. And have some respect for yourself. Your mother wouldn’t be proud of you throwing water bottles at basketball players, or spitting on players or tossing popcorn. So grow the f*** up and enjoy the game. It’s bigger than you.”

A number of people took issue with a video of Irving appearing to stomp on the Celtics’ logo at center court after Sunday’s game, including NBA Hall of Famer and former Celtics player Kevin Garnett, but other former players, including Charles Barkley and Kendrick Perkins, took umbrage with the fan’s alleged action.

As the playoff series headed back to Boston last week, Irving, a former Celtics player, implored fans to keep their comments “strictly basketball.”

"I am just looking forward to competing with my teammates and hopefully, we can just keep it strictly basketball. There’s no belligerence or racism going on, subtle racism," Irving said last week. "People yelling s*** from the crowd, but even if it is, it's part of the nature of the game and we're just going to focus on what we can control.”

Celtics general manager Danny Ainge told a Boston radio station last week in response to Irving's remark that he “never heard any of that from any player in my 26 years in Boston,” but Boston guard Marcus Smart alluded to hearing such remarks in the past, calling it “sad and sickening” to hear such rhetoric from fans.

Smart had previously detailed an experience with racism in Boston in an essay for The Players’ Tribune last year. Celtics legend Bill Russell, who won 11 championships with the team in the 50’s and 60’s, detailed hearing hateful, racist rhetoric from fans in a 2020 article for Slam Magazine.

“As far as I was concerned, I played for the Boston Celtics, the institution, and the Boston Celtics, my teammates,” Russell wrote. “I did not play for the city or for the fans.”

Sunday’s episode is the latest in a string of unruly behavior of fans at recent NBA playoff games, including:

  • An unidentified fan dumped popcorn on Washington Wizards player Russell Westbrook at a game against the Philadelphia 76ers. The fan was banned from all events at Wells Fargo Center indefinitely and had their 76ers season tickets revoked, according to the team.
  • The New York Knicks banned a fan from Madison Square Garden indefinitely for spitting on Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young. 
  • The Utah Jazz banned three fans from attending events at Vivint Arena for a verbal altercation with members of Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant’s family. Morant’s father claims that the fans directed racist and sexually explicit remarks toward them.

In a statement issued last week, the NBA said that “it is critical that we all show respect for players, officials and our fellow fans.”

“An enhanced fan code of conduct will be vigorously enforced in order to ensure a safe and respectful environment for all involved,” the NBA continued.