Child's play

Russell Westbrook is as right as dipping your fries in your chocolate shake. Professional athletes standing 6-foot-3 and weighing 200 pounds need more protection from tiny starstruck fans. A guy could get hurt.

Doubtless you've watched it more times than the Zapruder film by now, but here's the video of what happened the other night in Denver. Westbrook sort of tumbled out of bounds, and a little kid sitting courtside reached out and ...

"He hit me!" Westbrook said later.

"Shoved him," some media outlets reported.

"Struck him," others reported.

Well, no. Actually the kid didn't do any of that.

Actually he reached out and ... well, touched Westbrook. With, like, a finger. You could even argue he was trying to keep Westbrook, who was briefly off-balance, from falling.

Watch the video again. Show me the part where the kid "hit" him. Show me the part where he "shoved" him.

Take your time. I'll wait.

And while I'm waiting, let me say this: Westbrook handled the whole thing like a pro. He didn't get mad. He didn't scream at the kid or his parents. He calmly walked over, bent down and said a few quiet words -- presumably, "you can't be doing this." Then he patted the kid on the leg and returned to the floor.

So, kudos to him for that.

As for the rest ...

Well, there are mountains and there are molehills, and this seems far more the latter, even if Westbrook tried to make it the former with his postgame comments. Yes, fans shouldn't be making physical contact with players, no matter how slight. But there's a vast gulf between a little kid touching you (maybe just to assure himself you're real) and some drunken lout actually shoving you.

As far as I know, this rarely happens. Except for the clear exception of the Malice in the Palace some 15 years ago, physical confrontations between fans and players are virtually non-existent in the NBA, even if there is some occasional oral jousting (See: Spike Lee, Reggie Miller, the Garden). This despite the fact that so-called "Nicholson seats" -- i.e., courtside seats cheek-by-jowl with the team benches -- have become the norm.

The Blob's position on Nicholson seats is that they're a disaster waiting to happen. But we're still waiting all these years later, so perhaps I'm wrong about that.

And perhaps my stance is colored a bit by history.

Decades ago, see, when the NBA was in its infancy and the Pistons were still in Fort Wayne, they played their home games at North Side High School. The old North Side gym was, shall we say, a cozy place. So cozy, women fans sitting courtside used to stick opposing players with hatpins as they inbounded the ball. Visiting teams came to regard it simply as part of the Pistons' homecourt advantage.

Now?

Well, let's just say Westbrook is lucky women don't wear fancy hats to the games anymore.

A guy could get hurt.