The exchange went down as the Nets were coming off the floor, trailing the Knicks 67-50 at the half. Irving stopped and doubled back to get in the face of a fan he thought was trolling him.

In the short clip, you can see Irving tap the guy on his shoulder and exchange words with him ... before heading to the locker room with the rest of his teammates.

It's unclear what Irving said to the fan, who seemed visibly shocked Irving was there/touching him. Thankfully, cooler heads prevailed and the interaction didn't get any more serious.

After the game, Kyrie spoke to reporters and apologized to the fan for making contact with him ... and letting his emotions get the best of him.

"East coast basketball at its finest," Irving said. "People just yelling random s*** from the crowd. They wanted a reaction, they got one."

"I think I tapped the wrong person, so I apologize to the random guy that I tapped. He looked at me with a big surprise on his face. Somebody said something. I was just fed up with our performance."

Of course, this isn't the first time Irving got into with a fan. Earlier this year, Irving was fined $25,000 by the NBA for using the word "motherf***er" while responding to a fan giving him a hard time.

The NBA also hit Irving's teammate, Kevin Durant, for $25K after he told a fan, "you gotta shut the f*** up and sit down" during a game against the Dallas Mavericks.