NBA Passes New Policy For Bad Fan Behavior

Basketball | 10/21/19

After numerous high-profile altercations between NBA players and fans last season, the organization is changing its code of conduct for the 2019-2020 season. The new policy is zero-tolerance to bad fan behavior.

"We've added any sexist language or LGBTQ language, any denigrating language in that way, anything that is non-basketball-related," said Jerome Picket, NBA executive vice president. "So 'your mother' comments, talking about your family ... anything non-basketball-related ... we will go and pull a fan out of the seat and investigate what happened."

Some of the numerous incidents from last season include Russell Westbrook and DeMarcus Cousins being the subjects of racial taunts in Salt Lake City and Boston. The fans involved in those incidents were banned by the NBA teams.

Another high profile incident was when Raptors player Kyle Lowry was shoved by Mark Stevens, who is a minority partner of the Golden State Warriors ownership group. Stevens was banned from conducting any team business in the NBA for one year because of the incident.