Source: Stacy Revere / Getty
Deep-rooted sports rivalries only make the games even better, as rabid fans increase the intensity, both at home and away.
One of the longest-running rivalries in the NBA is between the New York Knicks and the Indiana Pacers, but it recently went too far with one fan while watching Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals at a local bar in Indianapolis.
Fox59 reports that for Pacers fan Jarrett Funke, Indy’s 114-109 win wasn’t enough, and he got into an argument with two others at the bar —including one who was a Knicks fan— and stabbed them.
The two victims tell police that Funke approached them and smacked the Knicks hat off one of their heads. To stop things from escalating, the 24-year-old was kicked out of the bar, but while leaving, he yelled “f-ck you, you still have a f-cking problem. Take this outside.”
A worker at the brewery called the police while it was happening, but once Funke left, the police were informed that there was no longer a need to respond.
But five minutes later, the two victims left the bar and were smoking out on the patio when Funke “stormed through the fence” of the establishment and approached them again.
One of them told cops he “briefly displayed a black folding pocket knife to deter” Funke but put it back in his pocket because “he had no intention of using it.” However, it didn’t deter Funke, who was tired of them “talking sh-t,” so he told police that he “retrieved his pocketknife from his hoodie and swung it around toward (one of the victims) back with his right hand.”
Then the other Knicks fan tried to pull Funke off his friend, and cut his leg on the steps in the process, leaving them both “profusely bleeding.”
That’s when the police were called again and told that Funke had returned to the bar and resumed harassing the Knicks fans.
Funke was arrested in the parking lot as he tried to flee the scene, and the stabbing victim was rushed to the hospital, where police say he suffered from a broken rib and a minor tear in his lung.
Funke told police that the Knicks fans started the fight and punched him in the face, despite several witnesses labeling him as the aggressor.
He’s now facing three felonies, including one count of battery using a deadly weapon, one count of battery resulting in serious bodily injury, and one count of criminal recklessness committed with a deadly weapon.
Fresh off the Knicks fans tossing garbage at a Pacers fan in New York City, see social media’s response to the latest sports fandom gone wrong below.