After Russell Westbrook's heated verbal exchange with a fan in Utah earlier this month, the topic of interactions between fans and players in NBA games has been a heavy focus.
Golden State Warriors big man DeMarcus Cousins, someone who is no stranger to expressing his emotions, said that while he understands the fan experience needs to be as great as possible, there is a line that should not be crossed:
“And of course we want the fan experience to be as amazing as possible and we want them to enjoy NBA games and feel like they can interact and all that, but there’s a line that shouldn’t be crossed and it gets crossed often,” said Cousins, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports.
Cousins, who said that he has been called a racial slur by fans before, added that players are people and have feelings just like everyone else:
“ … You see these clips of us reacting toward fans and they just say whatever they feel like they can say at the time, but at the end of the day, bro, our hearts beat the same way yours does, we bleed the same way you bleed, our emotions are the same as yours,” said Cousins. “If you was somewhere walking down the street and somebody says something crazy to you, you’re going to react. So just because it’s a basketball event doesn’t mean those emotions go out the door or us being a human being goes out the door. It’s the same thing. And it makes it even worse because we’re at work. If a dude comes up to you at work and says something crazy, does it change it? And it’s already enough emotions in a basketball game. I wish I had the answer to [resolve this], but something needs to be done because obviously it’s a bigger issue than they want it to be put it out as.”
The 28-year-old Warriors star makes a ton of great points here, but unfortunately, this type of thing will likely never stop at sporting events. No matter what types of measures you take to prevent it, people are people, and chances are, someone in the arena is going to behave improperly.
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