Westbrook Fined $25,000 For Confrontation; Utah Fan Banned For Life

Tuesday, March 12th 2019, 4:26 pm

By: News 9

The NBA acted swiftly with punishment against Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook in the wake of Monday night's confrontation with a fan in Utah.

And so did the Utah Jazz organization with punishment against the fan who allegedly instigated it.

Jazz fan Shane Keisel was banned for life by the Jazz, not just from basketball games but from all events at Vivint Smart Home Arena, permanently and effective immediately. Westbrook and other Thunder players said Keisel and his wife taunted the Thunder superstar with language that allegedly included, "get on your knees like you used to."

Keisel told Salt Lake City TV station KSL-TV that he merely said, "sit down and ice your knees, bro."

Related Story: Westbrook Gets Into Verbal Altercation With Utah Jazz Fans

Westbrook had no shortage of four-letter words for Keisel but said a cell phone video of the incident only captures part of the story. Among other things in the video, Westbrook can be heard shouting, “I promise you, I promise. I’ll expletive* you up, you and your wife.”

In a statement issued by the NBA late Tuesday afternoon, Westbrook was fined $25,000 for his role in the incident, an incident that had the All-Star's teammates rushing to his defense.

The original video has racked up more than two million views on Jazz Digital Sports reporter Eric Woodyard's twitter account, and even more people are talking about it.

Keisel added that he plans to file suit against Westbrook and, because of that, has taken down his social media accounts.