The Boston Celtics have banned a fan for two years for muttering a racial slur at Golden State Warriors center DeMarcus Cousins during a game between the Warriors and Celtics at the TD Garden, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports. The fan has been banned for the remainder of the 2018-19 season, and the entirety of the 2019-20 season. The incident occurred during the Warriors' only trip to Boston this season on January 26.
"During that game, there was a fan who muttered the n-word at DeMarcus Cousins," Haynes reported. "I was told DeMarcus informed one of the team security guys and they got a hold of the security team there at TD Garden. They took care of the fan, but I was told that ultimately that fan was banned for the rest of this season and next year."
Friday afternoon, the Boston Celtics released an official statement on the matter which went into greater detail as to what the fan, a minor, did in order to receive a two-year ban from the franchise.
Earlier this week, Cousins said that he has had racial slurs directed towards him by fans on more than one occasion.
"Oh, I've been called n****," Cousins said, via Yahoo. "And it's crazy because this has happened to me on a few occasions. I reported it to the league, and, you know, I may have said whatever I said back and I was still punished for it."
The league and its teams are clearly trying to crack down on this type of behavior from fans, as earlier this month the Utah Jazz suspended a pair of fans for heckling Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook with "degrading and offensive" language.
