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via Imago

via Imago

Kevin Hart’s love for heckling NBA players is well known. But does he have the potential to affect another player’s gameplay with his heckling? At least, Kevin believes he did something similar to Dwyane Wade.

Appearing on NBA Unplugged with Kevin Hart, the stand-up comedian claimed he did a good job in getting Dwyane Wade’s head. He states he threw D-Wade off his game on several occasions. “It got to a point where Dwayne was actually afraid of me being courtside,” Kevin stated. He also brought up one famous heckling incident where he supported the Philadelphia 76ers against 3x NBA champion’s Miami Heat.

Kevin claims that luck favored Dwyane Wade in that game. However, the Heat icon did not leave Hart’s statement of ‘Wade being afraid of Hart’s courtside presence’ unanswered. “Actually, I sent you tickets to game three in Miami after we beat y’all (76ers) in game two. You didn’t show up because I wanted you court side because you are a fan. That’s what hecklers are on the sideline. They’re fans,” the 3x NBA champion responded.

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However, Dwyane Wade is not the only player who has been a target of Hart’s courtside practice. And although the stand-up comedian heckling NBA stars is mostly in good humor, he has occasionally caused trouble as well. In fact, the Sixers vs Heat incident, which was discussed on the show, has also been one of such instances.

When heckling NBA stars did not go right for Kevin Hart

The Philly vs Miami game in discussion was actually Game 2 of the NBA playoffs. So it is obvious that Dwyane Wade was in no mood to let Hart’s heckling cost him something so valuable. And he proved it so with 28 points against the Sixers, leading the Heat to a 113-103 win. On being asked what got into him during the game, the Heat icon replied with the stand-up comedian’s name.

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Yet another instance of his support backfiring for the Sixers is an incident involving James Harden. In an interview with Uproxx back in 2018, Hart recollected the time he was trash-talking Harden while he was playing for the Houston Rockets against the 76ers in January 2017.

Notably, Harden scored 51 points against the Sixers and led his team to a 123-118 victory. Kevin recalled in the interview that when James was at the foul line at around 45 points he was like, “Kev, why don’t you tell your city why this is happening… Why don’t you just tell them why this is happening. Tell them what you did”. However, this had no long-term effect on Kevin as the incident with Dwyane Wade happened the very next year.

 

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