LeBron James was part of a heated altercation between a couple of courtside fans in the Los Angeles Lakers' visit to the Atlanta Hawks on Monday.
The referees had to stop the game in the eight-minute mark of the fourth quarter after James was seen exchanging some words with two fans, who were later identified as Juliana and Chris Carlos. The squabble resulted in the couple, as well as two other fans, getting escorted out of the arena.
After the game, the Lakers star appeared to be unbothered by the incident. The four-time NBA champion was even surprisingly pleased to be in the presence of actual fans after months of playing without anyone in attendance.
“At the end of the day, I'm happy fans are back in the building. I don't feel like it was warranted to be kicked out,” LeBron James said (via Dave McMenamin of ESPN).
Without a lot of people inside the Hawks' State Farm Arena, everyone could basically hear the argument between James and the fans. For the Lakers star though, it seemed to have been a simple case of trash-talking as he personally felt that the fans should've been allowed to finish the game on their seats. Juliana Carlos also took time after the game the explain her side of the situation, saying that she was simply defending her husband Chris.
This is definitely not the first time that fans have talked smacked to NBA players during a game; however, given the circumstances with COVID-19 and everyone being a little extra guarded in terms of the league's health and safety protocols, you could understand the arena security's decision of jumping the gun and kicking the fans out.
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