The Utah Jazz dropped the hammer on the fan who got into a verbal altercation with Russell Westbrook, provoking the Oklahoma City Thunder star to the point that the former league MVP said “I’ll f*ck you up.” After investigating the incident, the Jazz announced the fan would be permanently banned from their arena for “excessive and derogatory verbal abuse.”
Following the Los Angeles Lakers’ game against the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday night, LeBron James took a moment to give his thoughts on the incident. The Lakers star made it clear that he felt the fan in question crossed an obvious line with his comments.
LeBron James says Russell Westbrook was in the right yesterday in Salt Lake City although "there could have been some words Russ could've said a little different." Says the fan crossed the line: "That line is very bold. Everyone knows when you're crossing the line." pic.twitter.com/GKPZH83oQv
— Kyle Goon (@kylegoon) March 13, 2019
“What he said to Russ, there comes a point where it’s about respect,” James said. “The only thing we got in life is respect at the end of the day. We play basketball, you report about the game, you guys cover the game, but at the end of the day, as a man, all you got is your respect. That guy crossed a line, and it was funny that he tried to backtrack and say what he didn’t do, when they interviewed him, I’ve never seen a fan get interviewed like that before.”
James went on to laugh at the fact that the fan’s Twitter account that included anti-Westbrook posts was discovered, then gave the Jazz props for how they handled the situation.
“There could have been some words Russ could have said a little bit differently, but at the end of the day, he was in the right and that guy was in the wrong,” James said. “Stand up and salute, I salute the Utah Jazz and their organization doing what they did and we move forward.”
