The feud between NBA superstar Russell Westbrook and Utah Jazz fans continued last night. And the baller accused a fan of making racial comments.
In a video that’s circulating on social media, the Jordan Brand-backed athlete addressed a fan that he told reporters after the game was making racial and inappropriate comments.
“I’m going to tell you one thing, I’ll f**k him up if he says that s**t again. I promise you,” Westbrook was heard saying while on the bench in the video. “I promise you. You think I’m playing. I swear to God, I swear to God, I’ll f**k you up. You and your wife, I’ll f**k you up.
After the game, Westbrook expressed his thoughts on the incident with reporters.
“How it started was, the young man and the wife in the stands told me to get down on my knees ‘like you’re used to.'” Westbrook explained to reporters. “To me, that’s just completely disrespectful. To me, I think it’s racial. I think it’s just inappropriate in a sense of there’s no protection for the players. I think there a lot of great fans around the world that like to come to the game and enjoy the game, and there are people that to come to the game to say mean, disrespectful things about me, my family.”
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Westbrook continued, “For many years, I’ve done all the right things. I’ve never done anything to hurt or harm anybody, I’ve never been in any trouble, never fought a fan. Been in the league 11 years, clean slate, humble, I take all the criticism from everybody, been doing the same thing for years. For me, disrespect will not be taken for me.”
Post-game, the fan, who was identified in an ESPN report as Shane Keisel, 45, shared with ESPN a different recollection of the events that transpired.
“He’s got to be a professional. [My wife] was sitting down the entire time. Me and him were just actually kind of having fun, to be honest,” Keisel told ESPN. “He was smiling at one point.”
Keisel continued, “I just told him, ‘Sit down and ice your knees, bro,’ and he turned to me and was like, ‘It’s heat, it’s heat,’ and I’m like, ‘Well you’re gonna need it,’ and it turned into not-safe-for-work.”
According to reports, Keisel and other fans were handed warning cards for “excessive verbal abuse,” a violation of the NBA’s fan code of conduct.
Although the two have different stories, one thing that’s certain is that negative comments were all over the internet, including some allegedly made by Keisel about Westbrook on his own accounts.
This isn’t the first time things got heated between Westbrook and Jazz fans. In April 2018, during the first round of the playoffs, the baller and fans got into it twice as he exited the floor.
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