Szczerbiak target as women strays on court
Added: 3rd April, 2004 3:40 AM ET
Washington Post: Just how safe are the players and officials in the NBA if a person is able to simply wander onto the court, have time to stand around, then chase a player down to the other end?
This is what happened in Minnesota as the Timberwolves hosted the Washington Wizards last night. Luckily the fans' motive was not driven by violence, but with the world as it is today who would be willing to take that chance?
In the final minutes of the Timberwolves win a female fan strayed onto the court in an attempt to get her hands on Minnesota's Wally Szczerbiak.
Steve Wyche of the Washington Post says that Szczerbiak was clearly her target, but he was able to get away as play stopped with 54 seconds left and security came on the floor.
Looking somewhat dazed, she strolled around the top of the lane at the basket where Minnesota was shooting. Stunned, players and game officials stood around, fixated on the woman, who, after looking around for a few seconds, seemingly bewildered with her tongue hanging out of her mouth, made a move for Szczerbiak, who took off running to the opposite end of the court.
"I wasn't going to take a charge on that play," Szczerbiak said, smiling. "It's strange, man, I've never seen anything like that. I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often with the accessibility fans have to the court. I don't know what was going on with her. She seemed pretty spaced out. I needed to get out of there."
Security eventually escorted the woman off the court, but it took several seconds for anyone to get a grip of what was going on.
"I was guarding [Minnesota forward] Gary Trent over in the corner and I saw her coming on the court like she was trying to block his shot so I decided to move and let her contest it," Wizards forward Jared Jeffries joked. "She started running around in circles. That was wild. We needed a sixth person. She could have hopped out there and guarded somebody."
It all might of ended innocently enough, but what if it didn't? What if one of the games elite - such as Kevin Garnett - was injured by an attacking fan upset over a call or a play or a personal performance which buried their team?
In a world now full of uncertainty safety must come first, and that means keeping the fans in the stands. Last night's actions were a wake up call to ensure that this is enforced.
