OT - Marcus Smart: appropriate penalty?

[admin]

What will the Big XII do here? On one hand, no one was hurt. On the other, the league or the NCAA could be justified by suspending him for the rest of the season.

[BillikensWin]

Jeff Orr (the fan) supposedly has a history of boorish behavior.

Smart gets 1 game, max.

[Lavinwood]

The NCAA has to come down HARD on him to set an example. A player shoved a fan. That is outrageous and brings back memories of that Pacers game where the players went into the stands. This behavior while it did not result in injury is very dangerous and unacceptable. I don't care how much the fan egged him on. You are a major conference D-1 basketball player. You are used to getting heckled and tuning it out. To me the most troubling part of this is not the actual push, but the mindset Smart had to justify doing that, and just how off the rocker he is. When you are a fan at a game the last thing you expect is for an opposing player to assault you. You expect safety. So many negative things come into play here…they have to come down hard.

[TrueBlueJay]

Jeff Orr (the fan) supposedly has a history of boorish behavior.

Smart gets 1 game, max.

They said Orr has at least been caught flipping off players from A&M before. I'm afraid this fan may have had his last bit of fun at a Tech game for a while.

Smart will get at least one game but I think maybe 2 or 3 even.

[Lavinwood]

Jeff Orr (the fan) supposedly has a history of boorish behavior.

Smart gets 1 game, max.

They said Orr has at least been caught flipping off players from A&M before. I'm afraid this fan may have had his last bit of fun at a Tech game for a while.

Smart will get at least one game but I think maybe 2 or 3 even.

I too have heard he's a pain in the backside, but there are tons of fans like that. Every game you go to you will hear 1 loud obnoxious guy who taunts the other team. They don't get shoved though. The thing that angered me is that the media jumped all over it and SPECULATED that he said something racist. That is absurd and racist for even speculating that without any indication or evidence of that being the case. The guy is definitely annoying and probably had some choice words, but that is common as a fan. What's not common is a player shoving a fan.

[Jet915]

No matter what the fan said or did, Smart should not be going into the crowd and shoving him. Instead, he should have told the ref what the fan said and the ref could have had the fan kicked out.

[DudeAnon]

Suspend him 3 games and the fan 3 games. Can we please get over this now?

[NJRedman]

Oh I can think of a few things that guy could have said where it is perfectly excusable for Smart to have pushed him. One comes to mind starts with the letter N. Now, those of you who say "Nothing can justify this." is not living in reality. He's not a professional, not yet at least. He isn't being paid, so why should he be put up with being called racial slurs if that is indeed what happened. Thats Smart's story and I for one kind of believe him.

P.S. The fan in question looks like Mr. Belding's racist brother.

[redmen9194]

Smart is going to be suspended I would think multiple games. But the fan should have his seat moved for the rest of the season. If he doesn't like it they can refund his money. They were showing clips of this guy at other games cursing at opposing players. I know we all treat these players like they are professionals but they are not...they are kids. And if some idiot is in their grill saying inappropriate things, or things that other fans and their kids might find offensive sitting around them, the school should revoke the ticketbor move the seat.

[Arizona Jay]

Smart will likely get a 3 game suspension, maybe less if what the Tech fan said is true. For the Tech fan, living in Lubbock is punishment enough.