On January 19, in an NBA game between the Golden State Warriors and Miami Heat, on a fastbreak in the 3rd quarter, star forward Jimmy Butler jumps high for a pass and immediately realizes something is wrong. Upon landing, Butler collapses to the ground, holding his knee, writhing in pain. He was carried off the court by his teammates. It was announced the next day that Jimmy Butler had suffered an ACL tear, one of the most debilitating injuries in sports, deeming him out for the rest of the basketball season and likely even longer.
Upon hearing this, most would wish him a quick and healthy recovery. Fans in the sports world are starkly different.
“bye bum”
“Ofc you got hurt just retire bum”
“Lowkey glad he’s gone. This dude sucked anyway”
“Bye retire you bum”
All of these comments can be found below Jimmy Butler’s performance in the game against the Miami Heat on Real, one of the most popular sports apps in the world. These are not just comments at the bottom of the vast sea of the comment section. These can all be found in 2 or 3 scrolls. This is not just a specific incident, either. The basketball community is known for its bad-mouthing and toxicity towards other players. Another player who remains a target of trolls online is Ben Simmons, who famously passed up a wide-open dunk in a win-or-go-home game against the Hawks. After this incident, Simmons received barrages of troll comments on X, Instagram, YouTube, and other platforms. Subsequently, Simmons performed worse and worse year after year from that point on. He recently stated that he was taking a break from the sport. Whether or not these trolls directly caused his play to turn sour is not known, but they did play a part.
What these commenters fail to understand or just ignore is that athletes are human too.
A couple of days after Butler’s injury, Draymond Green, another star player for the Golden State Warriors, went on his podcast, The Draymond Green Show, and gave a little insight to the human side of athletes on T.V. Green recalls a moment in the locker room after the game, hearing Butler repeating the same statement,
“I was supposed to take my kids to the arcade tomorrow.”
Trash-talking a player can be fun and is simply in the nature of sports, but when it’s done even when a player gets injured as seen with Jimmy Butler, or overly repetitive in Ben Simmons, it is not funny; it is just cruel.
The next time you explode at a player for their underwhelming performance or mishap, remember the golden rule,
“Treat others how you want to be treated.”
Works Cited
Draymond Green Show (4:01) – Knicks MAD Over Mike Brown Hug? Jeanie Buss EXPLOSIVE LeBron Lakers Report, & Jimmy Butler Tears ACL
