Utah Jazz must actively enforce policies against racist harassment of players

Russell Westbrook was taped shouting expletives at a fan during his team’s win over the Utah Jazz on Monday. However, the other side of the story is even more ugly.

On the Utah Jazz’s web site, the team has posted their Fan Code of Conduct; an extensive list of guidelines designed to make the in-game experience enjoyable and safe for fans and players alike. In the wake of Monday night’s bout with Russell Westbrook and the Oklahoma City Thunder, two of those guidelines stand out above the rest:

1. Guests will enjoy the basketball experience free from disruptive behavior, including foul or abusive language or obscene gestures.
2. Guests who choose not to adhere to these provisions will be subject to ejection without refund and revocation of season tickets and may also be in violation of city ordinances resulting in possible arrest and prosecution.

It’s time for the Jazz to actively enforce their own code of conduct.

During the game, an exchange between Westbrook and a fan sitting near the Thunder bench was taped and eventually found its way to Twitter via the Deseret News’ Eric Woodyard. It depicts the former NBA MVP telling the fan, “I’ll f*ck you up. You and your wife.”

Clearly, that’s not an appropriate response to any situation, and threats against women should not be tolerated. That said, there are two sides to every story, and it’s hard to blame Westbrook for reacting in an emotional way given the verbal abuse he allegedly incurred from the fan, later identified as Shane Keisel.

After the game, Westbrook told the assembled media that he was told by Keisel to “get down on your knees like you’re used to.” Thunder players Patrick Patterson and Raymond Felton confirmed his story, and multiple parties indicated that Keisel’s dialogue throughout the night had racist undertones.

For his part, Keisel denied that any such harassment ever took place. However, a litany of Twitter sleuths quickly got to work searching Keisel’s account and uncovered a history of egregious tweets, some of them overtly racial in nature, at least one of which included use of the n-word, and some that even addressed Westbrook directly.

Keisel has since deleted the brunt of his past Twitter activity, but several screenshots of the tweets in questions are out there. Here are just a few; be advised that extreme language is used —

At the least, Keisel’s tweets show past behavior that is consistent with the version of events presented by Westbrook and his teammates. And I think we can all agree that it’s despicable.

Reports have indicated that the Jazz issued warning cards to fans involved in altercations with Westbrook during the game. It’s also been said that there was extra security near OKC’s tunnel. Clearly, more than that needs to be done to protect the players.

If Keisel repeatedly assaulted Westbrook verbally, the Jazz should have enforced their own code of conduct and ejected him from the game. Heckling of opposing teams and players is commonplace in every arena across the Association, but this is different. Hate speech is unnacceptable.

Racist remarks and continued harassment must be subject to a zero-tolerance policy and met with swift action. That didn’t happen in this case; Keisel was allowed to remain in his seat and was even interviewed about the altercation at the arena by members of the Salt Lake media.

The team is now said to be investigating the Westbrook incident. If there’s a preponderance of evidence suggesting that Keisel acted inappropriately — and one might say there is already — they must act accordingly. Given the organization’s track record, I fully expect they’ll do so.

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Following the incident, some members of the national media are taking fans in Utah to task for what happened on Monday night. In particular, Fox Sports’ Doug Gottlieb talked about Jazz fans having a rep for racist behavior.

Frankly, it’s unwise to paint entire fanbases with this brush given the actions of one ignorant fan; bad behavior happens all over the league. And we also can’t ignore Westbrook’s own, inappropriate response to the situation, even if the provocation was horrible. However, individual fans need to be held accountable for their actions, too.

The Jazz likely have work to do with Keisel, and must be better at enforcing their policies to mitigate the chance that something like this will happen again in the future.