The fan that was permanently banned from Vivint Smart Home Arena after a verbal altercation last year with Russell Westbrook is suing the point guard and the Utah Jazz.
The suit, filed on Monday, was obtained by the Salt Lake City Tribune.
In it, attorneys for Shane Keisel argue that “Keisel engaged only in typical crowd behavior when he and his girlfriend Jennifer Huff were subjected to a ‘tirade’ from and ‘irate’ Westbrook”.
Attorneys are seeking $68 million in damages for Keisel and $32 million for Huff for “defamation and emotional distress”.
The incident at the center of the lawsuit occurred last March when the Jazz were hosting Oklahoma City and the-Thunder point guard, Westbrook.
After that game, a video from Jazz beat writer Eric Woodyard of The Deseret News that went viral showed Westbrook in a heated exchange saying, “I’ll (expletive) you up. You and your wife”.
(Warning: The video contains explicit language.)
Westbrook claimed that the fan told him to “get down on your knees like you used to”, adding that the comment was “completely disrespectful, racial and completely inappropriate”.
Keisel said in an interview with KSL that he simply told Westbrook to “ice those knees up”, and the lawsuit reiterates those claims, stating, “Mr. Keisel’s heckling was of the same kind and caliber as that of the other audience members in the section.”
The Jazz issued Keisel a lifetime ban in March, while the NBA fined Westbrook $25,000 for “directing profanity and threatening language to a fan.”
Per the Salt Lake Tribune, neither attorneys for Keisel and Huff nor representatives for Westbrook had responded to attempts for comment.
