What happens if a fan interferes in a key moment?

[Myth]

Not a bad idea to have a plan for this situation, but I also think people underestimate how hard it would be to coordinate something like this in a way that would be timed correctly, effective, and worth the legal consequence. If we're talking live ball action fast break, most players can get from baseline to baseline in 3-5 seconds, and it would be tough to get anything done in that small timeframe. The NBA is just going a different speed than fans can insert themselves into effectively.

That said, its not hard to imagine an out of bounds play to win the game where the defense somehow allows Curry a wide open three in the corner, and a fan right there on the baseline interferes to make them re-inbound. Not sure what the solution to that would be, besides just re-inbounding.

Interfering may be easier than actually having to stop the player. The moment a fan runs onto the court, officials start blowing the whistle to stop play as soon as they see it, so you don't even need to be good enough to stop them. If it were game 7 in the Finals, and a fan sees a vital fast break, they could run at the player from the baseline of the basket the player is going to. Simply attempting may get the refs to stop the play. And then a simple inbounds with the D set up is not sufficient. Yet automatically giving points has never happened. And giving free throws is also not fair to the team on the fastbreak.

[Saints14]

This actually happened during a 1954 game between the Syracuse Nationals and Fort Wayne Pistons. It was a chilly November day and an abnormally tall fan ran on the court to block Red Rocha's shot with just two minutes left in the 3rd quarter. The referees paused the game and located a motherless kitten they saw earlier in the day that had been living in the arena due to the inclement conditions outside. They slit the newborn kitten's throat at half-court and drew a pentagram with its blood. There has not been another incident of fan interference since.

And this is why we can't bring pets to games

[Lunartic]

i hope it's jail time and a hefty fine. i could never understand how they could enforce a lifetime ban. do arenas have a facial recognition system in place?

Jail time for a guy interfering with a game of basketball? And people wonder why the US has the most incarcerated people on earth.

[ATRAIN53]

I guess Bartman is the gold standard for this.
It was a huge moment. Alou still claims he would have caught it. Even if he did it was only the 2nd out.

They still has a man on 2nd and one more out to get.
Mark Prior imploded after that, gave up 8 runs. So it's hard to totally blame Bartman.
I still kinda Baker for not coming out to calm Prior or take him out.


That Seles stabbing was insane and I point it out mostly because it's kinda been forgotten and exactly why athletes deserve police protection. They are completely vulnerable out there.

[UcanUwill]

i honestly thought about it. game 7, your team leads by one with 10 seconds to go, opponent intercepts the ball and is one man fast break to the open basket. You have a chance to run on court, get arrested after of course, but you can bump opponent player, make him lose the ball and make your team win a game. You forever remembered as a-hole but also kinda a home town hero. Do you do it?

[Maxthirty]

i hope it's jail time and a hefty fine. i could never understand how they could enforce a lifetime ban. do arenas have a facial recognition system in place?

Jail time for a guy interfering with a game of basketball? And people wonder why the US has the most incarcerated people on earth.

There’s a lot of $ on these games. It would depend on the situation, but I’m all for a guy getting a little jail time for intentionally trying to alter the result of a game.

[Lalouie]

i hope it's jail time and a hefty fine. i could never understand how they could enforce a lifetime ban. do arenas have a facial recognition system in place?

Jail time for a guy interfering with a game of basketball? And people wonder why the US has the most incarcerated people on earth.

There’s a lot of $ on these games. It would depend on the situation, but I’m all for a guy getting a little jail time for intentionally trying to alter the result of a game.

never thought of that but yes there is money on the line now in the form of online gambling. you can bet on nba games online - it's official. interference with the process of sports gambling.

or maybe take him to the backroom storage and let de niro or joe pesci break his knees

[Wallace_Wallace]

Its actually crazy, that this hasnt ever happened so far in the nba. especially in todays society, where people to literally anything for clout lol

https://www.cleveland.com/metro/2016/06/youtube_personality_charged_af.html

This Youtuber did that in the 2016 NBA finals. Kind of idiotic to be honest, but that he's gig, to be a troll.

At least he did that during a stoppage and not actually playing time. LeBron would be fuming because he was about the go down 3-1 against the Warriors.

[BenoUdrihFTL]

Each basket should be equipped with rocket-propelled grenade launchers that fire on any non-designated individual who enters the court

[Gusto1903]

Its actually crazy, that this hasnt ever happened so far in the nba. especially in todays society, where people to literally anything for clout lol

https://www.cleveland.com/metro/2016/06/youtube_personality_charged_af.html

This Youtuber did that in the 2016 NBA finals. Kind of idiotic to be honest, but that he's gig, to be a troll.

At least he did that during a stoppage and not actually playing time. LeBron would be fuming because he was about the go down 3-1 against the Warriors.

Yeah, but i was talking about someone doing it mid game

[JasonStern]

In college football, it's a penalty on the home team. I'd imagine the NBA has something similar - technical against the team, then resume play.

[Lunartic]

i hope it's jail time and a hefty fine. i could never understand how they could enforce a lifetime ban. do arenas have a facial recognition system in place?

Jail time for a guy interfering with a game of basketball? And people wonder why the US has the most incarcerated people on earth.

There’s a lot of $ on these games. It would depend on the situation, but I’m all for a guy getting a little jail time for intentionally trying to alter the result of a game.

"I'm in for triple homicide - how about you bro?"

"oh me? I messed up a Doug McDermott fast break"

Yeah no, that's a bad precedent. What about a guy that yells during an opera? He's messing up an expensive production. Or those people that talk during movies? They are impacting the product as well.

Just kick them out and ban them if you want.

[Maxthirty]

Jail time for a guy interfering with a game of basketball? And people wonder why the US has the most incarcerated people on earth.

There’s a lot of $ on these games. It would depend on the situation, but I’m all for a guy getting a little jail time for intentionally trying to alter the result of a game.

"I'm in for triple homicide - how about you bro?"

"oh me? I messed up a Doug McDermott fast break"

Yeah no, that's a bad precedent. What about a guy that yells during an opera? He's messing up an expensive production. Or those people that talk during movies? They are impacting the product as well.

Just kick them out and ban them if you want.

How much $ do you usually wager on the opera?

[JujitsuFlip]

https://youtu.be/xjH6Tb_AQpQ

Does anyone remember when Favre threw 5 interceptions and still had a chance to come down on a game tying drive and a fan ran on the field then stole the ball from him?

[JujitsuFlip]

Jail time for a guy interfering with a game of basketball? And people wonder why the US has the most incarcerated people on earth.

There’s a lot of $ on these games. It would depend on the situation, but I’m all for a guy getting a little jail time for intentionally trying to alter the result of a game.

"I'm in for triple homicide - how about you bro?"

"oh me? I messed up a Doug McDermott fast break"

Yeah no, that's a bad precedent. What about a guy that yells during an opera? He's messing up an expensive production. Or those people that talk during movies? They are impacting the product as well.

Just kick them out and ban them if you want.

Any fan who runs on the court/field already get charged with trespassing. If you agree with it or not is a different story.

[Lalouie]

Jail time for a guy interfering with a game of basketball? And people wonder why the US has the most incarcerated people on earth.

There’s a lot of $ on these games. It would depend on the situation, but I’m all for a guy getting a little jail time for intentionally trying to alter the result of a game.

"I'm in for triple homicide - how about you bro?"

"oh me? I messed up a Doug McDermott fast break"

Yeah no, that's a bad precedent. What about a guy that yells during an opera? He's messing up an expensive production. Or those people that talk during movies? They are impacting the product as well.

Just kick them out and ban them if you want.

oh come now, that is not the same thing. and frankly if they wanted to, they can create any kind of punishment they want. people have been held in the tank overnight for all kinds of misdemeanors, have they not? and as i said earlier,,,what does a lifetime ban mean exactly - do arenas have facial recognition or something?. but okay then, if they want to hit em where it hurts....how about a 15k fine

[rapstarter]

It is kinda surprising that something like this doesn't happen more.

[Lunartic]

There’s a lot of $ on these games. It would depend on the situation, but I’m all for a guy getting a little jail time for intentionally trying to alter the result of a game.

"I'm in for triple homicide - how about you bro?"

"oh me? I messed up a Doug McDermott fast break"

Yeah no, that's a bad precedent. What about a guy that yells during an opera? He's messing up an expensive production. Or those people that talk during movies? They are impacting the product as well.

Just kick them out and ban them if you want.

How much $ do you usually wager on the opera?

So your view is that jail time should be determined based on whether people gamble on the sport ? Why is that relevant?

I get the trespassing charge, 99% of the time that doesn't end in any jailtime as it's considered a misdemeanor. If someone at a restaurant leaves his seat and goes into the kitchen, should he also spend time in jail?

Seems like a crazy overeaction

[Maxthirty]

"I'm in for triple homicide - how about you bro?"

"oh me? I messed up a Doug McDermott fast break"

Yeah no, that's a bad precedent. What about a guy that yells during an opera? He's messing up an expensive production. Or those people that talk during movies? They are impacting the product as well.

Just kick them out and ban them if you want.

How much $ do you usually wager on the opera?

So your view is that jail time should be determined based on whether people gamble on the sport ? Why is that relevant?

I get the trespassing charge, 99% of the time that doesn't end in any jailtime as it's considered a misdemeanor. If someone at a restaurant leaves his seat and goes into the kitchen, should he also spend time in jail?

Seems like a crazy overeaction

You’re misunderstanding me.

1. I said it would depend on the situation.

2. I said “intentionally trying to alter the result of a game”.

And #2 is where the money comes into play. If you intentionally change the result of a game that thousands of people have $ on… yeah, I think that could be worthy of a few days in jail.

[Lunartic]

How much $ do you usually wager on the opera?

So your view is that jail time should be determined based on whether people gamble on the sport ? Why is that relevant?

I get the trespassing charge, 99% of the time that doesn't end in any jailtime as it's considered a misdemeanor. If someone at a restaurant leaves his seat and goes into the kitchen, should he also spend time in jail?

Seems like a crazy overeaction

You’re misunderstanding me.

1. I said it would depend on the situation.

2. I said “intentionally trying to alter the result of a game”.

And #2 is where the money comes into play. If you intentionally change the result of a game that thousands of people have $ on… yeah, I think that could be worthy of a few days in jail.

You're right, I misunderstood. I disagree though, I don't think it's right to imprison/jail someone for simply entering the court. I guess there's some weird charge surrounding attempting to interfere with a federally recognized sporting event for profit or something and that's a fair point from you.

But as a general rule, just trespassing onto the court or a sport field or a concert stage shouldn't result in a person spending time in a jail surrounded by actual criminals. It's just not that serious and we have more than enough people in jail in the USA.