Julius Randle blasts fan who spat on Trae Young: ‘No place for that’

Knicks All-Star forward Julius Randle loved the behavior of the Knicks’ electric crowds for the first two games – except for one guy.

Knicks All-Star forward Julius Randle loved the behavior of the Knicks’ electric crowds for the first two games – except for one guy, “The Trae Young Spitter.’’

Randle blasted the Knicks fan who spat on the Hawks superstar from the second row. He’s been banned from the Garden.

“I definitely didn’t see it but there’s no place for that, man,’’ Randle said. “I don’t care if it’s our home crowd or not, there’s no place for that. We’ve got to protect the players. That’s disrespectful. Yeah, it’s our fans and I love our fans, but you see a guy on the street you wouldn’t spit on him. You wouldn’t disrespect somebody like that. I don’t care what arena it’s in, whose fan base it is, there’s absolutely no place for disrespecting anybody in any capacity and especially spitting on him. That’s just ridiculous.’’

The series switches to Atlanta’s State Farm Arena for Game 3 Friday, where 16,000 are expected to attend. Traditionally, Hawks games feature a good showing of Knicks fans as a lot of transplanted New Yorkers live in “Hotlanta.’’

Julius Randle didn’t appreciate one Knicks fan’s action during Game 2.

“I’m sure we will (have Knicks fans), even though our home crowd obviously has been amazing,’’ Randle said. “It’ll be different on the road, obviously. But I feel like we’ll still have fans there regardless. Regardless of the crowd, we have to come with the mindset of just being the harder-playing team. We’ve got to execute better. Everything we’ve done all year that’s made us win games, that’s helped us win games – we just have to have that same mindset. And just have it at a higher intensity level.’’

The series is tied at one and Randle has scored 15 points in each contest – below his 24-point scoring average in the regular season.

This is Randle’s first playoffs.

“It’s everything I expected, honestly,’’ Randle said. “Just the intensity level, every possession matters. Just the game plan, the game plan discipline, so it’s everything I expected. You’ve just got to keep adjusting, keep learning, keep growing from it, and keep getting better. So that’s what I expect to do. As the series goes on I’ll continue to get better.’’

This story originally appeared on: NyPost - Author:Marc Berman