On the morning after the NBA all star unleashed on a Utah Jazz fan who was harassing him with racist taunts, Utah woke up to an international glare. In the aftermath of the game’s ugliness, the focus wasn’t on a famous athlete’s expletive-filled threats. It was on the atmosphere inside Vivint Smart Home Arena that brought him to that point.
Westbrook surfaced a dirty secret: The Jazz’s legendarily tough home crowd has been tolerating, even encouraging, some despicable hate speech from heckling fans.
“Throughout the whole game, since I’ve been here, especially here in Utah, there’s a lot of disrespectful things that’s said,” Westbrook told reporters after the game.