Kyle Filipowski became an unnecessary casualty of the crowd enthusiasm. While the crowd storming in the NBA is a thing of the past, in college basketball it is still widespread.
Despite the storming events, NCAA and Big Ten do not impose strict fines and that has raised questions over players’ security. One such incident happened between Duke and Wake Forest leading to unsavory moments.
Watch: Wake Forest fans rushing court leads to Kyle Filipowski injury
The fans barged in at LJVM Coliseum in Winston-Salem while the Duke’s star Kyle Filipowski was still on the floor. Struggling to find his way off the court he collided with the fans. Finally, a student manager came to his rescue and helped him move out of the court. This mass chaos led to a knee injury of Filipowski as confirmed by the 20-year-old and his coach.
After the dangerous incident Jon Duke Coach Scheyer said in a press conference, “When are we going to ban court-storming? … It’s a dangerous thing.”
A similar incident happened to the leading scorer of women’s college basketball Caitlin Clark, where she was blindsided in the collision. While the sentiments of the fans can be respected but the players or staffs’ safety cannot be put into jeopardy.
Basketball fans split over Kyle Filipowski injury after rushing incident
Kyle Filipowski suffered multiple blows by the Wake Forest fans. To celebrate their win, the fans rushed onto the court creating a dangerous situation for the rival team’s center to securely move to the other side of the court.
The video of the incident is making rounds on the internet, and the basketball fans could not hold back themselves from reacting on X (formerly Twitter). While there are some who hold the Duke player responsible, others have different perspectives too. Here are some of the tweets of the basketball community sharing their views on Saturday’s incident:
“I think it’s well documented that I dislike the Duke men’s basketball program more than almost any other American entity. So I feel confident in my lack of bias to say blaming Filipowski here is one of the most wild takes I’ve seen on the internet.”
Putting the blame on Filipowski a fan wrote, “It’s well documented that I’m a huge Duke fan and I think it’s totally his fault”
“He kicked his foot out and pushed the dude lol. He tried and got hurt. Idk y anyone cares”
“I agree. I love court storms because they are fun for the students and I don’t want to see them go away… If the home schools can’t protect the visitor players it should stop. I blame Wake Forest for not having a plan”
“Like in what world is this OK? Not only did he get run over by someone getting in his face, he got blatantly shoved from behind by another guy. If Wake had any class they’d be ashamed of this behavior.”
The situation turned so fast that no officials could restrict it. Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes, who is totally against court storming, said that they will make sure that the situation is handled in a better way if it happens the next time. Filipowski recorded 17 points with 8 rebounds and 5 assists although the game resulted in a loss for his side.
