Toronto Raptors’ Chris Boucher and Fred VanVleet exposed hateful and offensive comments they received from sports bettors over their game performance.
In an interview with Yahoo Sports Canada’s Hustle Play podcast on March 24, forward Chris Boucher shared a prejudiced message he received.
“Somebody said ‘I chose the wrong slave today.’ Literally sent me that message. I had to read it, I couldn’t believe it. He said, ‘I chose the wrong slave,’ because I had only five points, and he needed me to score 10,” the Raptors forward said.
Boucher, along with former RaptorAlvin Williams, spoke to co-host Mike Roach about the power of social media criticism and how fan abuse has gotten increasingly worse over the years.
In 2022, Ontario became the first Canadian province to launch a regulated sports betting program. This law permits a variety of different sports betting, such as future bets and single-game betting, allowing multiple sportsbooks to officially open for business.
Since then, sports betting has become a serious fixation amongst fans to the point where some are turning irate and malicious towards players who not do not meet their wagers.
“People just want you to do what they want, and that’s the issue. The betting’s not going to make it better with the parlays and all that clearly. I’m so over this, man,” Boucher said.
Similarly, point guard Fred VanVleet also shared some of the toxicity and negativity he’s received from some aggravated fans.
In a recent interview with the same podcast on April 4, VanVleet said he frequently receives death threats towards his family.
“You can’t fathom dealing with this on a daily basis. You can’t fathom a ‘I hope your mom dies’ DM every day,” VanVleet said.
He goes on to say he learned to stay off Twitter and avoid looking at his Instagram messages for this reason. Instead, he’s chosen to read books and look elsewhere to occupy his time. However, he does mention he still goes on Instagram solely to post pictures.
The Raptors were recently eliminated from the NBA season after losing 109-105 to the Chicago Bulls in a play-in game on April 12.
