For Monday’s contest between the Los Angeles Lakers and Cleveland Cavaliers in Northeast Ohio, a limited number of fans were allowed to enter Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse to watch the game.
One of them got kicked out by security for holding up T-shirts with messages that attempted to throw shade at LeBron James.
“Security tossed a Cuyahoga Falls man out of Monday’s Cavaliers-Lakers game for holding up T-shirts with offensive slogans that targeted former Cavalier LeBron James, according to police reports,” wrote Adam Ferrise of Cleveland.com.
“The 49-year-old man was not arrested and no charges have been filed in the incident.”
According to reports, the man’s conduct went far beyond the usual heckling that superstar players like James encounter on the road.
“The man held up t-shirts that read: ‘LeBron is a racist,’ ‘LeBron is a narcissist,’ ‘Gloria Goes West. Starring LBJ as king narcissist’— an apparent reference to his mother Gloria James— and another one that contained a sexual innuendo,” wrote Ferrise.
“A Cleveland police officer and arena security guards confronted the man in Section 126, behind one of the baskets on the lower level of the arena, and asked to see the shirts to determine if they violated the fan’s code of conduct.
“The man ‘became extremely aggressive,’ shouted at the officers and security guards and refused to show the shirt, according to police report.
“The security guards told him he was kicked out. He continued shouting profanities, then lunged at the head security guard, grabbed her hands and hit her in the side, according to police.
“The officers escorted him out of the arena. The man refused to leave and five times tried to run back into the stadium by trying to burrow his way through the guards and officers, according to police.”
The man wasn’t the only heckler James had to deal with that night. Another fan, who was later identified as a member of the Cavs’ staff, mocked the four-time MVP when he missed a shot towards the end of the third quarter.
James was already having a great game, but the incident fired him up enough to outscore the entire Cavs team in the fourth quarter.
In the end, James and the Lakers got the last laugh, as they won the contest 115-108. The Akron, Ohio native led the way with a monster performance of 46 points on 19-of-26 shooting, eight rebounds and six assists.
