Pelicans fire usher after child rushes court to hug Carmelo

The lesson here is: never let anyone show kindness to the New York Knicks.

An usher was fired and a police officer was reassigned after a child ran onto the court when the New Orleans Pelicans hosted the Knicks on March 28.

The young fan burst onto the court during a stoppage in play to give Carmelo Anthony an embrace. The child was shooed off the court by a referee.

Smoothie King Center general manager Alan Freeman told John Reid of NOLA.com that the crowd control barrier wasn't in place and the usher wasn't watching the aisle.

"Then, there is a police officer stationed in that general area also, and he was not doing his job," Freeman said. "So essentially what happened there is that you get two people who were not doing their responsibilities and that led to a black eye for us as the building operator.

"So what we have done since then is first of all, we obviously replaced those two people who failed to do their jobs - the usher and the police officer."

In addition to the firings, arena staffers also underwent reinforcement training, including watching the video of tennis player Monica Seles being stabbed in an on-court attack in 1993.