The Knicks announced on Thursday that the fan that was caught on video spitting on Trae Young during Wednesday night’ game two has been banned indefinitely from Madison Square Garden, and New York’s biggest star voiced his frustration over the incident on Friday.
“There’s no place for that, man,” Julius Randle said. “I don’t care if it’s our home crowd or not. There’s no place for that. We gotta protect the players. It’s just disrespectful.”
The MSG crowd was largely praised for its boisterous atmosphere that helped bring back a return to normal with the largest indoor gathering in New York since before the pandemic, and while Wednesday night was the team’s biggest win in eight years, the incident with Young and the now-banned fan put a blemish on an otherwise celebratory evening.
“I know that’s our fans and I love our fans, but if you see him on the street you wouldn’t spit on him,” Randle said. “You wouldn’t disrespect somebody like that.”
The incident with Young, who heard jeers from the energetic crowd throughout games one and two, occurred on the same night that Wizards point guard Russell Westbrook had popcorn poured on him as he exited the game with an injury, while multiple Jazz fans were called out for making numerous inappropriate comments towards the family of Grizzlies star Ja Morant. The league responded by announcing stricter policies on fan behavior at games moving forward.
“I don’t care what arena it’s in, whose fanbase it is, there’s absolutely no place for disrespecting anybody in any capacity, and especially spitting on a man,” Randle said. “That’s ridiculous.”
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