Philadelphia sports fans are known to be particularly harsh on players on their own teams (and even Santa Claus), but you can’t claim they don’t lay it on the visitors just as savagely.
During Wednesday’s game between the 76ers and the Oklahoma City Thunder, a friendly gentleman from the City of Brotherly Love sent Russell Westbrook a two-fingered salute.
Imagine being a grown man who pays significant money to shout obscenities at dudes half his age with 10 times his net worth. Quite a life.
Credit to Westbrook f0r reacting so calmly. Most of us, when flipped off by strangers who shout “Fuck you,” do more than say, “That’s not OK” and calmly request that the guy be ejected from the facility. Per the tweet below, it looks like Westbrook got his wish.
ESPN probably wishes it could have cut away before this Brotherly Lover greeted Mr. Westbrook, but the fact the twin middle fingers made it onto national TV allowed Jeff Van Gundy to bless us with some exceptional commentary, which begins in the above clip and continues here:
Van Gundy: I always like the bravery of fans, when they know they can’t be—like, you should be able to go up into the stands and just whack that guy.
Mike Breen: No, no, no, no, no
Van Gundy: Yes, you should. That guy flips him off like that? He’s all brave.
Breen: Well he should be thrown out.*Pause to talk about basketball*
Van Gundy: I can’t believe you don’t think he deserves to be able to go in there and smack him.
Breen: No, that would start a riot.
Meanwhile, let’s check back in on the charming Philadelphia fan who started this all.
The woman in the blue hat’s body language says it all.
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About Alex Putterman
Alex is a writer and editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. He has written for The Atlantic, VICE Sports, MLB.com, SI.com and more. He is a proud alum of Northwestern University and The Daily Northwestern. You can find him on Twitter @AlexPutterman.