Have sports fans always been like this? Or is their return from the COVID-19 fan hiatus just making them seem a little bit crazier?
We saw it all on Thursday night. We saw a streaker slip and slide on a tarp during a rain delay at Nationals Park. We saw a fan dump popcorn on Russell Westbrook as he left the Wizards-Sixers game with an injury. We saw what appeared to be a fan spitting on Trae Young at Madison Square Garden in Game 2 of the Hawks-Knicks playoff series.
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And if the fan hadn't actually spit on Trae Young — the evidence in the video is inconclusive — there was plenty of verbal abuse that the Hawks star guard had to take anyway. Apparently the chants from the first game were too profane, so Knicks fans modified the language in their chants... with potentially even lower-class disses toward Young.
And apparently, they weren't just chants that spawned spontaneously. We're not sure who the originators of the below sign were, but someone spread the message throughout the audience at MSG, and eventually the corresponding chants took hold.
If we know Trae Young, though, we know he loves responding to this type of fuel from the audience and using it to boost his play. Through two games, he has a plus-5 +/- and averages of 31.0 points, 8.5 assists and 4.0 rebounds. Though the Hawks didn't come away with the victory in Game 2, stealing one from the Knicks in hostile territory should be seen as a win, and the much more supportive crowd in Atlanta could bring out an even better version of Young. If that's the case, Knicks nation better watch out.
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