Marcus Smart Claims He Pushed Texas Tech Fan After Racial Slur

During Oklahoma State’s 65-61 loss at Texas Tech on Saturday, super sophomore point guard Marcus Smart was assessed a technical with a few seconds remaining after pushing a Texas Tech fan. Following the conclusion of the game, Smart said the fan, supposed “No. 1 Texas Tech fan” Jeff Orr, used a racial slur, which precipitated his reaction. Orr claims otherwise, but admitted he felt bad about what he said.

Here’s the incident in question:

CBS Sports’ Doug Gottlieb reports that Orr feels bad about what he said:

Jeff Orr to a #TexasTech friend of mine via text "I kinda let my mouth say something I shouldn't have,I feel bad" #MarcusSmart

— Doug Gottlieb (@GottliebShow) February 9, 2014

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Text convo from my Tech friend w/Orr- Orr is Tech's biggest fan-everyone knows him, he goes to every game pic.twitter.com/1ZlN6gAdz3

— Doug Gottlieb (@GottliebShow) February 9, 2014

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But Gottlieb also relays that Orr denies he used the n-word word or anything vulgar:

"wasn't vulgar or the N Word" another text from Orr – #MarcusSmart

— Doug Gottlieb (@GottliebShow) February 9, 2014

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Smart claimed otherwise:

Radio analyst John Holcomb confirms what he said on air: He heard Marcus Smart say the fan called him the n-word.

— Kelly Hines (@KellyHinesTW) February 9, 2014

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Duke’s Jabari Parker stuck up for Smart in a tweet that has since been removed, but which USA Today’s For The Win blog helpfully nabbed:

Metta World Peace, who famously ran into the stands after a beer was toss on him in Detroit during the “Malice at the Palace,” spoke about the Smart situation with ESPN:

“At 19 years old, when I came out of St. John’s, I was fresh out the ‘hood. I was fresh out of Queensbridge,” he said. “So my mentality was still struggle, defensive and things like that. I wasn’t really conscious. I’m 34 years old now. So he’s a young kid. I wish I would have listened when I was a kid to my elders or people who had my best interests at heart, and then I wish I would have been more conscious at that age also. Those are two things that, if you were to reach out to a kid like Marcus — a talented kid, future leader in the community — you would tell him those things.”

This whole thing is awful, regardless of whether Orr used the n-word or not. But if it ends up coming out that Orr did use racial invective towards Smart, we’d hope he would no longer be referred to as Texas Tech’s No. 1 fan.