Russell Westbrook, NBA stars too thin-skinned? Or are hecklers out of control?

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Are pro athletes getting too thin-skinned? Or are fans in attendance going overboard with their heckling?

Maybe both.

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The latest example of an NBA star taking exception to being heckled during a game occurred Sunday night, when Russell Westbrook of the Los Angeles Clippers — in a Round 1 win at Phoenix, per viral video presumably taken by a fan — went literally out of his way en route from his locker room to the court, after halftime, to confront a blabbermouth fan, in the designated ‘club area’ for fans entitled to luxury-suite amenities, under the main-floor stands and adjacent to the players’ walkway back onto the court.

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“Watch your mouth, mother*****,” Westbrook said over and over to the rather portly fan, who presumably had been shouting over-the-line offensive things during the first half to the 34-year-old point guard, a nine-time NBA all-star, two-time league scoring champion and one-time league MVP.

Was the fan apologetic?

Uh, no.

“Take it like a man!!” the fan shouted back at the offended Westbrook, who had to be shielded from the fan by a team or stadium employee.

The host Phoenix Suns are investigating the incident, reports said Monday morning.

It wasn’t the first time Westbrook, a 15-year NBA veteran, took issue with a harping, high-spirited, hypercritical heckler in the house. Nor was it the first time even this month an NBA player confronted a loudmouth fan.

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Are fans these days crossing the line? Getting too loud? Or too personal? Or too critical? Or too incessant?

In some cases, surely. Why not in sports, too?

In NBA players’ defence, lower-section fans at league games are able to observe pro-sports action more closely, and unobstructed, than at any other major pro league. And, frankly, courtside celebrity distractions and taunting of visiting teams have been out of control for years.

And let’s not even get started on such fair-weather celebrity fans, such as hip-hop megastar Drake (a native Torontonian) with the Toronto Raptors. He never hesitates to way over-insert himself into the proceedings, courtside, such as during the Raptors’ championship run in 2019, yet he didn’t even attend the team’s play-in game last week. No glory or gloating to be gained on camera, Drizz?

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Going forward, here’s a theory: The more pro athletes react to such verbal jabs from the stands, the more such taunts, such insults, will occur. And the more, these days, those incidents — such as Sunday night’s — are going to go viral.

Then, necessarily, the more they’re going to happen.

Just as with the growing numbers of fights (indeed, brawls) we see up in the stands at sports events.

Jeez, are all impatience and intolerance knobs at sports events cranking up to 11 these days? Has every stadium or arena become the equivalent of a Philadelphia Eagles home game?

Seems like it.

In that way, sports stadia are becoming just like social media, aren’t they?

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@JohnKryk