In the final minutes of game one of the NBA Finals between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs, it wasn’t the athletes sprinting down the court, but a fan.
According to The Athletic, a fan ran onto the court with six minutes remaining in the game. He sprinted, cell phone in hand, to Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama and took a quick selfie. Then, he snapped a shot with Knicks' player Mitchell Robinson.
The NBA Code of Conduct states, "guests who engage in fighting, throwing objects, or attempting to enter the court will be immediately ejected from the arena."
Per the rules, he was quickly apprehended by security and local police, along with a co-conspirator who did not run onto the court.
Both men have received lifetime bans from all NBA arenas, and the fan who breached the court was arrested for the stunt.
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“I’ve never been in that situation,” Wembanyama said after the game. “I didn’t know how to act. It really surprised me, almost as much as that time (when) a bat crossed the court.”
After the game, the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office told Fox San Antonio, “The juvenile committed criminal trespass under Texas Penal Code 30.05 by entering the court area without effective consent of the owner, despite having notice that entry onto the court was prohibited.”
