NBA commissioner Adam Silver made it abundantly clear in comments this week that the league stands strongly against the kind of behavior seen during the NBA playoffs that involved ugly incidents of fan misconduct.
In a stunning spate of misbehavior in just the last few days, fans have been banned from arenas due to three separate incidents involving the Washington Wizards’ Russell Westbrook, Atlanta Hawks’ Trae Young and Memphis Grizzlies’ Ja Morant during road games at Wells Fargo Center, Madison Square Garden and Vivint Arena, respectively.
The Philadelphia 76ers, New York Knicks and Utah Jazz swiftly reacted to the unacceptable fan behavior by indefinitely banning the perpetrators from their arenas.
In an interview with Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington published Friday, Silver strongly condemned the kind of fan impropriety seen this week and pledged the league’s full commitment to maintaining player safety.
“Zero tolerance,” Silver said. “No one is going to get away with an act like that. You’re going to be caught. You’re going to be banned from an arena. In some cases there may be criminal prosecution depending if the conduct rises to that level of an assault or something that the police are going to take note of.”
Silver’s remarks reinforce a statement issued by the NBA on Thursday that laid out in no uncertain terms that fan misconduct will not be tolerated.
