Utah Jazz banned a fan for doing nothing
Utah Jazz banned a fan for doing nothing
When talking about the differences between Europe and USA regarding basketball usually fans are a big part of the discussion. In Europe, the atmosphere is much greater than in the NBA because there are fanatic crazy fans which support their team no matter what. This is not the case in the USA where basketball is more of a show, a business so people come to enjoy a spectacle and to eat and drink from the restaurants that are inside the arenas.
However, in some places like Utah, the fans are very involved in the game and they even get in heated arguments with the players. The public favorite is Russell Westbrook who has had there some big conflicts in the last year. The most recent one took place a few days ago when a fan made some bad comments about Westbrook’s family. The American point guard got really mad and he responded to the fan some bad words that can’t be reproduced. After the game, Westbrook was asked about this situation and he was pissed off. He stated that he isn’t sorry for what he said and that it doesn’t seem right that the fans can have so much power to insult players.
Fast-forward to the present, the owner of Utah Jazz decided to permanently ban that supporter from the team’s games and also she addressed the crowd saying that she wishes for more respect from the fans. If this action had stopped here it would have been absolutely fine but unfortunately, the management took it even further. They decided to look back at a fight that took place in the last year playoffs when Westbrook was pissed that a fan called him ‘boy’. After they found the guy they permanently banned him too and that seems really crazy to me.
Let’s look a little bit at this situation. A basketball player is being paid 35,000,000 dollars/year to do what he loves. The nature of his job involves being in front of thousands of people who usually want him to lose. Therefore, it is absolutely normal that in intense moments the other teams’ supporters will say something about you. It is the same as the trash-talking between players, they try to get under your skin in order to defocus you from the game. Now, your job as a player is to ignore as much as you can the voices from the crowd and to try to win the game.
Let’s make this clear, I’m not saying that the players should allow being insulted or their families being insulted. In this case, I agree with Russ and other players that took action against the fans. But if someone calls you ‘boy’ I don’t think that you should cry. I think that Russ should’ve proven on the court that he is a man and that he can destroy the other team.
This is why, in my opinion, the second ban issued by the Utah Jazz management is really a bad decision. I mean, what did he do wrong?
