Fanatics View Words: Did LeBron James get a Raptors fan thrown out of Game 4?
The 2016 NBA Eastern Conference Finals has been a battle of home court between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Toronto Raptors.
With the home team winning every game of the series so far, the fanbases of both teams have been in full force doing everything in their power to help their teams get one step closer to a spot in the NBA Finals.
Going into game 6 tonight it appears that Raptors fans may have been more effective in getting under the skin of LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. But when you get on the bad side of King James, there are consequences.
Late in the fourth quarter of game 4, the game was stopped because the officials decided to eject a Raptors fan sitting court side for allegedly criticizing their calls. The Toronto crowd was all over the referees and the Cavaliers throughout the game for foul calls not going in favour of the Raptors. The Raptors didn’t attempt a free throw until 6:13 into the third quarter.
But there may be more to this story than meets the eye. According to Chris Smits, one of the men that ended up being escorted out of the Air Canada Centre, it was LeBron James who allegedly got the fans ejected from the game for their trash talking. According to a post on his Facebook page Smits claims that the fan beside him told LeBron that “he was playing like a p***y” and afterwards LeBron “threw a hissyfit and told the ref the fan made physical contact and he’s not playing until he’s ejected.”
Source: Facebook
Smits made an appearance on Toronto’s Talk Radio AM 640 where he explained what he saw to host Jeff McArthur.
The incident created a buzz on social media as to whether or not the officials ejecting the fans was the right call? Regardless of what lead to the decision, is trash talking by fans just a part of the game and the officials and LeBron overreacted? Especially when in game 5 a Cavaliers fan was seen court side yelling at Raptors head coach Dwane Casey.
At this stage of the NBA playoffs emotions are at an all-time high for everyone involved. But it doesn’t look like things will change anytime soon with the series coming down to the wire between the two best teams in the Eastern Conference.
