Report: Blazers Fan Removed from Game for Racist Comments Toward Jordan Clarkson | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors

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Sam Forencich/NBAE via Getty Images

A Portland Trail Blazers fan was escorted from the team’s 118-113 loss against the Utah Jazz on Saturday after reportedly directing racial remarks at Utah’s Jordan Clarkson, per Sarah Todd of the Deseret News.

Sarah Todd @NBASarah

A Blazers fan was escorted out of the arena tonight. The fan, according to those who heard the exchanges, was directing racist comments toward Jordan Clarkson and then also flipped the players off for a long while. Sexton pointed the fan out to team security.

Clarkson didn’t comment on the situation when talking to reporters after the game.

The fan was one of two spectators who were removed from the contest in the second quarter.

Poor fan behavior at NBA games is a continued pain point for the league. In May 2021, the father of Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant, Tee Morant, said three Jazz fans made racist and vulgar comments to him and his wife during a game.

“I know heckling,” he told ESPN’s Tim MacMahon. “We were doing that the whole game. But that’s different than heckling. That’s straight up disrespectful. That was too far out of line. You don’t say nothing like that heckling. That’s beyond heckling.”

It has been a worrying trend. In 2021, a fan threw popcorn at Russell Westbrook:

Bleacher Report @BleacherReport

Russ got heated after a fan threw popcorn at him pic.twitter.com/XyMRUxUVwc

That same season, a New York Knicks fan was banned indefinitely for spitting at Atlanta Hawks star Trae Young during a playoff game in Madison Square Garden. And Kyrie Irving had a water bottle thrown at him by a Boston Celtics fan.

“It’s unfortunate that sports has come to this kind of crossroads, where you’re seeing a lot of old ways come up,” he told reporters at the time. “Just underlying racism, and treating people like they’re in a human zoo. You know, throwing stuff at people and saying things. There’s a certain point where it just gets to be too much.”

And during’s last season’s playoffs, two fans were banned for a year after attempting to make contact with Chris Paul’s family:

Shams Charania @ShamsCharania

Statement from the Dallas Mavericks on the incident involving Chris Pauls family and fans. Two fans, who gave unwanted hugs to Pauls family, will be banned from American Airlines Center until 2023: pic.twitter.com/tDTVcD36uU

In May, NBA commissioner Adam Silver told ESPN’s Malika Andrews (h/t Wilton Jackson of SI.com) that he believed the pattern of poor fan behavior was reflective of “a larger societal issue.”

“We are seeing enormous polarization, seeing political discourse, civil discourse… I think in some ways, we are a microcosm of that,” he added.

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