Golden State Warriors center DeMarcus Cousins was recently on Chris Haynes Posted Up podcast to talk about a range of topics that included his time with the Warriors, tough guys, his relationship with Dame Lillard and more.
One of the more serious conversations revolved around the recent incident that involved Russell Westbrook and a fan in Utah and what players have to endure during the course of the game. Cousins revealed that he’s gone through similar situations on more than one occasion, saying that he even told the team security and the NBA league office about the issue.
In the interview, Cousins said that he felt that the players were powerless in these situations because more often than not, there is no punishment for the fans and the players are always fined.
Since the interview, however, Haynes has learned that the incident that Cousins was talking about happened this year in January at Boston (only his fourth game back from his Achilles rupture).
“During that game, there was a fan who muttered the n-word at DeMarcus Cousins,” said Haynes. “I was told that DeMarcus informed one of the team’s security guys, they got a hold of the security team there at TD Garden and they took care of the fan. I was told, that ultimately, that fan was banned for the rest of this season, and all of next year. So he received a two-year ban.”
Haynes also said that the Warriors and Cousins just learned about the ban and that the league office is going to try to be more transparent about how they handle these situations with players moving forward.
While this has been happening for decades, Westbrook’s situation has jumpstarted a lot of dialogue about how fans interact with players and how that safety issue doesn’t feel like it goes both ways when it comes to the players feeling comfortable while they’re working. Many players have since come out and said that they’ve either gone through something similar, or have been present when a teammate was going through it with a fan.
It’s a huge issue for the NBA, and they’re going to have to find a solution that is more proactive than the bans that follow.
