have you ever been to a sporting event 240? The players are always talking shit to the fans. How many times have athletes been caught on camera flicking off the crowd? Hell Jake Plummer was caught flicking off his own fans in denver. Oh yeah there was this incident too...
If you throw a coke on ANY man, he's going to try to split you open.
Point is, NBA fans don't get on message boards and threaten to run into the 9th row and wallp someone for saying their jumper was flat or they weren't hustling up the court on fast breaks. In BBing, you have guys who seriously spend time boasting about plans on kicking some strangers' ass because he voiced a negative opinion.
It's completely unprofessional for "pro" athletes to engage fans like that. No matter how stupid or lame the fan may be. Fans have rights to opinions. If Peyton Manning was flipping off fans and talking shit about "640 yards or Bust" on a message board, the NFL office would be sitting his ass down for a course in PR, as his behavior reflected poorly on ALL NFL players.
Throwing a coke is assault. Saying someone looks like crap in a thong is not.