Sources: Celtics fan who uttered racial slur at DeMarcus Cousins banned from TD Garden
On Monday, Golden State Warriors star DeMarcus Cousins told Yahoo Sports’ Chris Haynes that he has been subject to racial slurs from NBA fans on multiple occasions while playing on the road.
“Oh, I’ve been called n-----,” Cousins said. “And it’s crazy because this has happened to me on a few occasions. I reported it to the league, and, you know, I may have said whatever I said back and I was still punished for it.”
Cousins declined to detail where he heard the slurs, but sources told Haynes that one of the incidents occurred during a road game against the Sacramento Kings, where Cousins used to play.
Sources: Celtics fan banned for racial slurs
Haynes learned on Thursday that another incident occurred during the Warriors’ Jan. 26 road game against the Boston Celtics.
Sources told Haynes that a fan muttered the slur at Cousins, prompting the Warriors center to inform TD Garden Arena security.
The fan involved in the incident was banned for the remainder of this season and all of next.
Increased scrutiny of verbal abuse from fans
A spotlight has been placed on verbal abuse directed at players from opposing fans in the aftermath of the March 11 Russell Westbrook incident that saw the Oklahoma City Thunder guard caught on video threatening a fan in Utah who was heckling him.
The Jazz eventually banned the fan for life “based on excessive and derogatory verbal abuse directed at a player.”
Westbrook said later that he had been subject to repeated racial taunts from road fans.
“Especially here in Utah,” Westbrook said. “Every time I come here there’s a lot of disrespectful things said. I’m just not going to take the disrespect for my family.”
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