Towards the end of the third quarter of Monday night’s Rockets-Jazz game, Houston Rockets’ guard James Harden noticed a Jazz fan shining a laser pointer directly in his face as he was preparing to take free throws. Now, I’m all for some good old-fashioned distraction tactics when someone is at the line, but I think we can all agree laser pointers definitely toe the line, so to speak. Real-talk, they can cause vision damage extending to blindness if they catch you right in the eye and, oh yeah, they’re annoying AF.
Harden was quick to realize the laser careening all over his face, as was NBA referee Tom Washington. The Rockets star quickly identified and pointed out the laser-bearing man in the Utah crowd. And who do you think looks like the guilty party in this picture?
https://twitter.com/JayGold85/status/684222920034488320/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc^tfw
Because that shrug is exactly the opposite of what an innocent person would do.
The Houston Chronicle reports that the fan was promptly removed from Vivint Smart Home Arena and banned from all NBA arenas for an entire year. Deservedly so for being a jackass.
“Some guy was lasering me,” Harden said. “I saw it the first time and I thought it was a picture being taken. I went to the foul line again and it happened again. The referee (Tom Washington) caught it before I did. That’s the first time that happened to me.”
Welp, doesn’t seem like it’ll be happening again anytime soon in Utah. Why can’t people just stick to normal free throw distraction techniques? Like this one.
Exactly.
[h/t SBNation]