The Chicago Bulls poured in an epic second half performance against the Toronto Raptors during their first play-in game on Wednesday night.
As the story went, the Bulls saw a big second half from Zach LaVine who ended the game with a game-high 39 points in the Bulls’ victory. But, the biggest story wasn’t LaVine’s night. In fact, that was far from the biggest story.
The headline, that night, came via the daughter of DeMar DeRozan, who was identified as the infamous “free throw screamer.”
The Raptors ended up missing 18 of their 36 free throw attempts in that game, which wound up being the difference between a win and a loss for Toronto. It was DeRozan’s daughter, Diar, who screamed at the top of her lungs during every single one of those free throws, and boy did it make a difference.
After the game, at least from the Bulls’ perspective, it was all fun and games. It was cute. After all, did a little girl really become the difference between an NBA team’s win or loss? We’d love to give her all the credit, but these are professional athletes. They hear a whole lot come their way, verbally, night-in and night-out.
Chicago Bulls fan Diar DeRozan was simply being just that, a fan and a kid, just as many of us sports fans have done in the past
DeMar DeRozan's nine-year-old daughter, Diar, was escorted out of the Raptors' arena by Bulls' security on Wednesday after the team was notified by the NBA that she received severe online threats, per @ChrisBHaynes pic.twitter.com/nkUwoMMjiI
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) April 14, 2023
Some don’t feel the same, though. In fact, there were reportedly some people who threatened Diar after the game, resulting in the young girl having to be escorted out of the arena.
Listen, this is a 9-year-old girl.
Not only is it shameful and completely unacceptable for fans to be threatening a 9-year-old kid, but it’s flat-out embarrassing.
If I am a player on that Toronto roster, I am embarrassed that my own fans had the audacity to not only blame our losing performance on a child, but go out of their way to make threats toward her.
It’s an absolute mockery of these players, who put a whole lot of blood, sweat and tears into the game they play, to go out and blame their loss on a young girl. It’s shameful to go out of their way and threaten her, on top of it all.
Raptors fans, I do not envy you.