“Celtics fan poured beer on LeBron James and immediately lost Game 7”: How ‘The King’ carried Miami Heat to an NBA Finals berth following disrespect from Boston crowd

A Boston Celtics fan poured beer on LeBron James after Game 6 and the Celts went on to lose Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals in 2012. 

LeBron James has seen his fair share of hate over nearly 2 decades of NBA basketball. Him leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers to team up with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh on the Miami Heat essentially started his ‘villain arc’ in the league, leading to Cleveland fans doing everything from burning his jersey to spewing foul language towards him in arenas. 

As hate around the league grew for LeBron James, a couple cities truly took it personally against ‘The Chosen One’. Boston is one of these cities. It’s been well known for decades that Celtics fans aren’t exactly the mellow type. They have been known to be some of the most disrespectful fans across the NBA.

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This isn’t to say that every single Celts fans is intolerable as that certainly isn’t the case. It’s just that many incidents have happened between that fanbase and players in arenas. James unfortunately, was on the brunt end of this 10 years ago. 

A Celtics fan poured beer over LeBron James after he went off in a crucial Game 6. 

LeBron James had already built a rich history with the Boston Celtics by the time the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals had rolled around. Between 2008 and 2012, the Celts and James’s teams faced off against one another in the Playoffs all but one year (Magic ended Boston’s run in 2009 ECSF). 

Until LeBron left the Cavaliers, he fell to Kevin Garnett and company year in and year out in the postseason. However, his first year with the Miami Heat saw him gentleman sweep Doc Rivers’ guys in the semis. No one on the Celtics averaged over 20 ppg this series.

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The next year saw one of the most competitive series in recent memory as the Heat went 7 games against the Celts in the ECF in 2012. Game 6 was a classic as LeBron James dropped 45 points to stave off an elimination, tying the series at 3 a piece. 

As James was walking into the tunnel, a Boston fan poured beer or some variety of liquid on him. He looked relatively unfazed by this and it seems as though he took it personally.

A Celtics fan poured beer on LeBron after Game 6 of the 2012 ECF.

At that moment, Boston lost Game 7. pic.twitter.com/akux89LNH0

— LeBron History 🏀 (@bronhistory) May 28, 2022

James went on to drop 31 points and grab 12 rebounds in Game 7 to beat the Celtics to advance to the NBA Finals which they won in 5 games.