Jazz fan calls James Harden 'the worst flopper in the NBA,' gets his phone smacked

You know what? I might be on an island here, but I kinda like the cut of this Utah Jazz fan’s jib.

Jason Glad arrived at Toyota Center dressed head-to-toe in Jazz gear, complete with a Rudy Gobert jersey, which immediately made him a whipping boy for every Houston Rockets fan in the lower bowl of the arena. First off, kudos to him for making it out of enemy territory alive. A true American hero.

Then, when his Jazz took a 64-55 lead into halftime of Game 2 of their Western Conference semifinals series, Glad let Rockets star James Harden hear about it on his way into the tunnel. Just heckling a dude in his own home. Don’t let him get comfortable. The phone might have been a little much, but somebody’s got to record this behind-enemy-lines moment for posterity’s sake. Even the Rockets fans seemed to enjoy it, especially when the likely MVP made Glad flinch and Nene gave him a shove:

Anyone who takes a shove from a 6-foot-11, 250-pound dude and comes right back to Harden when he comes back out for the second half with, “You’re still the worst flopper in the NBA,” is OK in my book:

That’s the sort of toughness the Jazz exhibited in bringing home a Game 2 victory to Utah.

Now, if this fan had said anything inflammatory unrelated to Harden’s game, I’d have a different opinion about him entirely. But he’s just keeping it between the lines, trying to gain a mental edge, and who knows how long Harden (9-for-22 field goals, 2-of-10 from 3-point range) thought about it.

Harden may hear about it from the league office, too, considering he slapped Glad’s phone and the NBA fined former Jazz wing Rodney Hood earlier this season for smacking a phone out of a fan’s hands in Washington. Glad certainly heard about it from security afterward, but you can clearly see him informing them multiple times, “I just told him, ‘You’re still the worst flopper in the NBA”:

That is kind of all he said, at least in the video he posted to Facebook, which came with the caption: “Had a great time at the Jazz Game!!! Harden … didn’t have as much fun as me.” Solid heckling still.

Glad was a good sport about it after the video went viral, via Deadspin, and Rockets fans came heavy into his mentions. “He flinched at me the first time,” he said. “Then hit my phone the second. Funny.”

When they told him he had a whiny voice and couldn’t stop crying to the cops, Glad responded, “Hahaha! This is my favorite comment so far! I definitely have a whiny voice. If you watch, I’m just defending myself to the cops. If this all happens, and the cops don’t get after me, it’s all just funny. But the police were trying to blame me, so therefore I continue to explain I did nothing but heckle, and Harden was the one that escalated things by hitting my phone. Haha, great comment though!”

This is a self-aware whiny heckler who called James Harden “the worst flopper in the NBA” in his house and got a reaction out of him as his team stole home-court advantage in a playoff series. Dante Exum essentially did the same thing to Harden. This man should be an Osmond-level legend in Utah.

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Ben Rohrbach is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach

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