ATLANTA — A moment between LeBron James and fans at the Hawks-Lakers game has everyone talking on social media.
During the fourth quarter of Monday night’s game, the Lakers star and a couple sitting courtside got into a verbal spat with each other.
The broadcast showed the woman lowering her mask to yell at James, who can be seen in the videos responding back. Officials paused the game and called in security, who removed the fans from the game.
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The woman, who identified herself as Juliana Carlos, took to Instagram to tell her side of the story in expletive-filled videos.
Carlos posted that James and her husband were originally arguing and that she didn’t like how her husband was being treated. The Instagram stories were removed later Monday night. Carlos issued a statement Tuesday afternoon.
In his postgame interview, James didn’t seem to have a problem with what happened, saying he is happy that basketball fans can be back at games.
Hawks allowed fans back at State Farm Arena last week, but only at 8% capacity or about 1,300 fans.
“At the end of the day, I’m just happy fans are back in the building. I missed that interaction. I need that interaction,” James said. “I don’t feel like they were warranted to be kicked out. There was a back-and-forth between two grown men and we said our piece. And then someone else jumped in and said their piece.”
James later posted on his Twitter account “Courtside Karen was MAD MAD!!”
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