Sixers, Knicks, Jazz issue indefinite bans to heckling NBA fans

On Wednesday night, the NBA’s first-round playoff games were certainly memorable. In response to three separate instances Wednesday night, the Philadelphia 76ers, the New York Knicks, and the Utah Jazz each have issued out indefinite bans to specific fans that were in attendance.

Philadelphia 76ers/Russell Westbrook: 

This past Wednesday, Washington Wizards guard Russell Westbrook had already been having a nightmare in Game 2 against the 76ers. At the beginning of the 4th quarter, his team was being dominated 98-81, and he had just severely rolled his ankle by stepping on 76ers forward Forkan Korkmaz’s foot. As Westbrook was being led back to the locker room, a 76ers fan poured popcorn down upon him:

Yikes. After being physically restrained by security and led off the floor, Westbrook made strong comments about the lack of protection of the players from the fans: 

To be completely honest, this s— is getting out of hand, especially for me. The amount of disrespect, the amount of fans just doing whatever the f— they want to do — it’s just out of pocket. There are certain things that cross the line. Any other setting … a guy were to come up on the street and pour popcorn on my head, you know what happens.

In these arenas, you got to start protecting the players. We’ll see what the NBA does.”

On Thursday, the 76ers released this statement, ultimately deciding to revoke the fan’s season tickets as well as ban him indefinitely from all future Wells Fargo Arena events. 

TRAE YOUNG/NEW YORK KNICKS

In this case of the Atlanta Hawks’ Trae Young, some may consider the offense made against him to be the most egregious. In the fourth quarter of their playoff game against the New York Knicks, a fan spit on an unknowing Young as he inbounded the ball. 

In a statement released on Thursday afternoon, the Knicks responded to this criminal act with this: 

We investigated the matter and determined that this patron, who is not a season ticket holder, did indeed spit on Trae Young, and for that reason, he is now banned from The Garden indefinitely. We apologize to Trae and the entire Atlanta Hawks organization for this fan’s behavior. This was completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated in our venue. We have turned the information over to the appropriate authorities.

According to ESPN, Trae does not plan on pressing charges. But, he did take to twitter to respond the act:

Ja Morant/UTAH JAZZ

In contrast to the other two incidents, Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant himself did not have an incident with any Utah Jazz fans; his family in attendance did. In the aftermath of the Game 2 playoff game between the Jazz and the Grizzlies, three male Jazz fans were indefinitely banned for making disrespectful marks to Morant’s parents. In one instance, one of the fans said to his father, “I’ll put a nickel in your back and watch you dance, boy.” The Jazz would release a statement on Thursday: 

The Utah Jazz have zero tolerance for offensive or disruptive behavior. An incident occurred last night involving a verbal altercation during Game 2. Arena security staff intervened, and the investigation resulted in the removal and banning of three Jazz fans indefinitely. We apologize to all who were impacted by this unfortunate incident and condemn unacceptable fan behavior. The Utah Jazz are committed to ensuring a safe and respectful environment.

Morant would also respond via twitter: 

With all of these incidents happening on the same night, it should be interesting to see how the rest of the NBA playoffs play out.

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Kyle-Michael Rose

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