Earlier this week, Russell Westbrook was involved in a heated exchange with a Utah Jazz fan, where it's since been reported that the fan was shouting racial taunts at the Thunder point guard, which led to lifetime banishment of the fan in question.
To emphasize their position, however, Jazz owner Gail Miller took the microphone before last night's game with the Timberwolves, and made clear to the fans that she would not tolerate any racist behavior from anyone in her arena.
"I am extremely disappointed that one of our quote 'fans' conducted himself in such a way as to offend not only a guest in our arena, but also me personally, my family, our organization, the community, our players and you, as the best fans in the NBA," Miller said during her 3 1/2 minute speech, while suggesting that as a community they do need to clean up their reputation.
"This should never happen. We are not a racist community," she said to an applause, "We believe in treating people with courtesy and respect as human beings. From time to time, individual fans exhibit poor behavior and forget their manners and disrespect players on other teams. When that happens, I want you to jump up and shout 'stop.' We have a code of conduct in this arena. It will be strictly enforced."
She concluded her statement by saying "No one wins when respect goes away," while additional emails were reportedly sent out to season ticket holders to remind them that tickets can be revoked for unruly behavior.
Source: TMZ
