NBA players are people too, lest we ever forget that. The latest wonderful example comes from Thursday night’s game between Dallas and Portland.
Mavericks guard Devin Harris dove for a loose ball and crashed into the courtside seats, where he was met by a couple of young fans. As it is sometimes a little scary to have a 6-3, almost-200-pound man barreling into you while you’re trying to enjoy a basketball game, Harris did the universal sign for “everything is okay.” He gave them high fives.
This is the sort of thing that you remember forever if you’re a kid. I have a few stories like that with coaches and players that I hold onto, and I walked away always having a positive memory of a certain game, certain coach or player. It probably wasn’t even a big deal to Harris, who reacted naturally. But to a couple of young basketball fans, that’s a story they’ll tell their friends for years.
This isn’t the first time Harris has crashed into fans diving for a loose ball, either. So maybe he needs to make sure he wears some extra padding or at least stuffs his pockets with stickers and candy in case someone actually gets hurt.
Harris hurt his hand in the loss to the Trailblazers, but not because of the high fives. X-rays were negative.
