Isaiah Thomas goes into Philly crowd when fan curses at him after being denied free Frosty

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PHILADELPHIA — After entering the Wells Fargo Center stands Saturday night to confront a Philadelphia 76ers fan, Washington Wizards guard Isaiah Thomas was confident he was in the right — and it was all over a free fast-food dessert treat.

“The league knows: I did nothing wrong,” Thomas said in lengthy comments to reporters after being ejected from the Wizards’ 125-108 loss. “There just should be a respect factor [with fans]. Like, I’m not going to go to anybody else’s job and call you out of your name, no matter how mad I make you. I don’t even know how I can make you that mad when we were down 15. We lost the game. That’s all I’m saying. I’m a man before anything, and that just wasn’t okay to do — and I just had to say something.”

The league has rules against a player “deliberately” entering the stands, which is why Thomas was ejected. But the guard believes the NBA would understand his perspective and not issue a suspension.

Thomas said a male fan held up both middle fingers and made a “disrespectful” comment — because Thomas did not provide the crowd with free dessert.

During the second half of 76ers home games, when an opposing player misses two consecutive free throw attempts, fans receive a small Frosty from Wendy’s. Thomas, on a late trip to the line, split a pair of free throws — spoiling the promotion. As he turned around to head to the defensive end, he noticed a fan standing in Section 120, showing him both middle fingers and directing an insult at him.

The Wizards called a timeout with 2:53 remaining, and Thomas left the court to confront the fan, who was wearing a red Ben Simmons jersey.

“I’m never going be disrespected in any way. My dad told me at a young age: Anybody call you out of your name — it doesn’t matter where I am, that’s not going to happen,” Thomas said. “When I missed the first free throw and made the second, I’m running back, and the fan has both of his middle fingers up and said, ‘F--- you, b----!’ three times. So then the timeout goes, and I go in the stands to confront him.

“I say: ‘Don’t be disrespectful. I’m a man before anything and be a fan,’?” Thomas continued. “And his response was: ‘I’m sorry. I just wanted a Frosty.’?”

While Thomas explained the incident to reporters in detail, he spoke in a calm tone — just as he said he did while addressing the fan in the heat of the moment.

“I didn’t scare nobody. I didn’t even use a curse word,” he said. “So when the league investigates, I’m going to tell them the exact same thing — and hopefully they should understand it.”

Wizards Coach Scott Brooks said he was not aware what provoked Thomas to enter the stands.

“You don’t know what happened, but there’s no reason to go into the stands,” he said. “Maybe there’s one [reason], but I’ll keep that between me and myself. .?.?. But, no, I don’t know what happened.”

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