'We Forget They Are Truly Human Beings': Kyrie Irving and Fan Misconduct

Tamika Tremaglio, the new executive director of the NBA's players association, discusses Irving's clash with Celtics fans.

Kyrie Irving paid a steep price for his recent clash with Celtics fans, but the incident underscored a deeper issue—that fan misconduct in NBA arenas remains a serious concern, said the new head of the players union.

“It is really difficult to watch these things continue to happen,” Tamika Tremaglio, the executive director of the National Basketball Players Association, said on the latest episode of The Crossover podcast. “And it’s heightened over the last several years.”

Tremaglio, who assumed her role in January, said she spoke to Commissioner Adam Silver this week about doing more to hold fans accountable for violating the fan code of conduct.

“We really need our fans … to actually have ramifications for their actions, just like our players do,” Tremaglio said. “And so I do think having a conversation with Adam, where we talked about increasing our security, making sure that we're notifying individuals on a regular basis, that this is not appropriate. I'm hopeful that that will really change the game.”

Irving was fined $50,000—the maximum allowed under the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement—for making obscene gestures and using profanity to fire back at fans at Boston’s TD Garden during the Nets’ Game 1 loss to the Celtics on Sunday.

Watch NBA games online all season long with fuboTV: Start with a 7-day free trial!

That incident came just nine months after a Celtics fan was arrested for throwing a water bottle at Irving—one in a series of incidents after the NBA began allowing fans back in arenas after the COVID-19 pandemic. Hawks star Trae Young was spit on by a fan in New York during the playoffs. Russell Westbrook, then with the Wizards, was pelted with popcorn during a game in Philadelphia. Both of those fans were later banned from games, as were three fans in Utah, who had verbally harassed the family of Grizzlies star Ja Morant.

Winslow Townson/USA TODAY Sports

It remains unclear what the Celtics fans said to provoke Irving last Sunday. But his overt gestures made clear how much it upset him.

“Under normal circumstances, certainly Kyrie would have wanted to do something differently,” Tremaglio said. “But I think it pushed him to his breaking point.”

She said the scene “was really difficult to watch,” and showed “how commercialized our players have become. We forget that they are truly human beings, that they are experiencing the same things that each and every one of us is experiencing on a daily basis.”

Tremaglio, who spoke with Irving during the week, said he “is saddened by the experience that he had. But we also have an onus to make sure that things like that do not continue to happen.”

Other topics discussed during the podcast include the NBA’s age limit, the length of the schedule, the union’s role in increasing player wealth and the upcoming labor negotiations.

For more, subscribe to the Crossover podcast.

Sports Illustrated may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.