Three Jazz fans have been banned indefinitely from Utah’s arena after making racist comments towards the family of Ja Morant. Tee Morant, Ja’s father, said he and his family were enjoying “good natured trash talk” with some fans during the game, but a group of three crossed the line in awful fashion, as he detailed the horrific comments that were directed at him and his family during Wednesday’s Game 2 in Utah to ESPN’s Tim MacMahon on Thursday.
“I know heckling,” Morant said. “We were doing that the whole game. But that’s different than heckling. That’s straight up disrespectful. That was too far out of line. You don’t say nothing like that heckling. That’s beyond heckling.”
Per the elder Morant, one fan made a sexually explicit comment towards his wife, Jamie. Another, he said, told him, “I’ll put a nickel in your back and watch you dance, boy.” A third fan told Jamie Morant “Shut the f*ck up, b*tch.”
The Jazz issued a statement that did not specify who was involved exactly, but stated that “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.”
Ja Morant sent out a few tweets about the incident Thursday night and had tweeted “#protectourplayers” after Game 2.
as they should . my family should be able cheer for me & my teammates without getting inappropriate shit said to them
https://t.co/CWiJIpkq03
— Ja Morant (@JaMorant) May 28, 2021
my family told me they felt the love from all the other jazz fans who were around them
even bought each other drinks with a few.
those 3 just went too far
— Ja Morant (@JaMorant) May 28, 2021
This is the third incident involving fans being ejected for harassing players during the playoffs, as a fan spit on Trae Young in New York and Russell Westbrook had popcorn dumped on him in Philadelphia as he left Game 2 with an ankle injury. This is also the second incident like this in recent memory to occur in Utah after a fan made a racial comment to Russell Westbrook in 2019 — with that fan’s lawsuit against Westbrook being thrown out on Thursday. This week, Nets guard Kyrie Irving also expressed concern about being targeted by fans in Boston as he makes his first return to play his former team.
It seems reasonable to wonder if the NBA will make some kind of changes in an effort to prevent this in the future. There’s nothing acceptable about this incident or any of the other’s that have happened. Banning the fans for life is the appropriate response, but it’s clear that as arenas return to full capacity fans have to show more respect for players and their families.