Freebies are common at NBA games, because who doesn’t love them? (Thunderstix? Sure, if they’re free!) But whoever’s in charge of Chinese arenas should never, ever, under any circumstances willingly hand out objects that could be used as projectiles. Fans here are notorious for throwing things onto courts, embarrassing themselves and everyone involved. They did it again last night — with the NBA in town. The object of choice? Frisbees.
Whoever thought this would be a good idea should be immediately fired. Frisbees! These things are cheap, expendable, and begging to be tossed. How anyone holds one and doesn’t automatically want to chuck it is beyond me.
Sure enough, sometime during the game in front of a packed house, thousands of fans simultaneously began throwing their plastic. It made for a pretty wonderful scene, actually, but must have scared the heck out of event organizers. The PA announcer had to say, “If you can’t cooperate, this game can’t continue.”
The crowd had their fun, settled down, and then watched as the Miami Heat rolled the Los Angeles Clippers 94-80. In other words, everything returned to normal.
UPDATE, 4:22 pm:
@beijingcream It wasn’t that bad – they were light-weight styrofoam. Nerf, basically. Got hit in the back of the head and it was no big deal
— Dusty Laneさん (@Dustin_L_Lane) 2012年10月12日
In light of that, the guy who came up with the idea can keep his job. We’re also told that the tossing went on during a timeout, so the game wasn’t really delayed very long.
Here’s another view, via City Weekend’s Natalie Litofsky:
Youku version of the top video:
