NEW YORK — A young Knicks fan, frustrated with his team’s performance and the struggles of the franchise star, said he was ejected Wednesday from the Miami Heat’s arena and escorted away by police because Julius Randle couldn’t handle tame heckling.
Dylan Rainey, a Florida transplant from Long Island and New York sports fan, relayed his story on WFAN’s Carton & Roberts Show before expanding in an interview with the New York Daily News on Friday.
The 29-year-old real estate agent said he sat behind the team’s bench with his girlfriend and turned irritated when the game quickly got out of hand. In the second quarter, with the Knicks on their way to a blowout defeat, Rainey said he yelled at Randle from his seat, “You get a $118 million contract and the fans get a thumbs down? Are you kidding me?’ ”
It was a reference to Randle flashing a thumbs down to fans at Madison Square Garden before explaining its meaning: “Shut the f--- up.”
According to Rainey, Randle summoned a Knicks security guard after the contract comment, and arena personnel issued a written warning. Rainey said he then kept quiet until midway through the fourth quarter, when Randle was at the end of the bench.
“He’ sitting right in front of me, I said, ‘Hey, you know you’re -34 right now, right?’ ” Rainey said. “Then he looked at me, was clearly trying to intimidate me, then he got security, and that was a wrap.”
Rainey shared video of a uniformed cop, flanked by another cop and a security guard, telling him to leave his seat.
“I didn’t even do anything,” Rainey tells the cops in the video.
“I think it’s time for him not to be a Knicks fan,” remarked another spectator.
Rainey was then escorted away and said he returned home devastated.
“I’m hurt, man. I got home that night and I got really, really upset,” Rainey said. “I felt really, really upset. I’m questioning like, ‘Why do I do this? Why do I support a team and these players who don’t care? They kicked me out of the game. Why do I devote my time and energy and emotion into something ... ?’ ”
Rainey acknowledged being vocal during the game and engaging in a brief exchange with RJ Barrett about his free-throw percentage. But Rainey said he wasn’t intoxicated and never used profane language.
“I’m also considerate,” Rainey said. “I’m not trying to go there and curse.”
The Knicks declined to comment and directed queries on the incident to the Miami Heat arena. An email to a Heat spokesman went unanswered.
It became another example of the increasingly contentious relationship between Randle and the fans, with the wounds expanding rapidly since his thumbs-down gesture. Randle had been shunning the media but spoke to reporters Friday in Milwaukee and expressed his commitment to the Knicks.
“I still want to see this thing through,” he told reporters. “I still want to be a part of helping trying to bring a championship to the Knicks.”
Rainey, however, isn’t happy with the commitment to fans.
“This needs to be a message to the front office of the organization from a young fan of the Knicks, a loyal fan,” Rainey said. “Incompetence and a disgraceful performance year after year is one thing, but then to have a fan like myself go and support the team and be a true loyalist, and then to have a player on my own team kick me out when he’s on the road, that’s unacceptable. That’s unacceptable from somebody who is supposed to be the face of the franchise.”
