WASHINGTON D.C. – Chris Paul wasn’t sure what the fan said to Monty Williams or what his head coach said in response, but he is certain about a couple of things.
“Coach is the most peaceful person I know,” Paul said. “If you’ve made him mad, then you’re on one.”
Williams had an exchange with a male fan sitting courtside in the fourth quarter that led to two male fans being escorted out of the arena late in Phoenix’s 127-102 loss to the Washington Wizards at Capital One Arena Wednesday.
“It’s just some of the stuff that happens in games, you expect some of it with people cheering for their team, but tonight, it was out of control,” Williams said after the game. “The referees, the officials did a good job. I tried to tell the guy to calm down and relax. We weren’t going to get him thrown out of the game on the first try, and then he just kept going and they had to do what they had to do.”
Suns director of security Max Cayard approached the fan and was signaling for him to be removed from the arena. Then the fan came at Cayard as the two had to be separated.
That led to the fan and another fan being walked up the steps and out by arena security. While there is no official word on actions being taken against the fan, he’ll likely be banned from the arena for a year at least.
“It’s been out of control in some places for a while,” Williams continued. “This is the only vocation where people can come to your job and say anything they want to you and you just have to ignore it. Some stuff that is said is out of control and you just can’t disrespect people like that while they’re trying to do their job. Unfortunately, it ended up with those people being thrown out, but some stuff is over the line.”
Williams called for the NBA to “set some higher standards” for people sitting courtside.
“It’s never the whole front row,” Williams said. “It’s always one or two people that have to ruin it for everybody. So unfortunately, it was just one of those things, but it was out of control.”
Williams said the bad behavior started from the very beginning of the game.
“You expect some of it, it’s just part of it, but tonight was way over the line as far as the disrespect,” Williams said. “The seats are way too close to the floor. So, you’re tripping over people, but I think this is something that the league has to address because players and coaches feel like sometimes, you’re unprotected. You show a level of restraint, and your only resort is to tell the officials, hey, this guy is out of control. It was unfortunate.”
Williams noted he wasn’t the only one being verbally harassed by the fan.
“I thought our guys did a good job of restraining themselves because it wasn’t just me,” Williams said. “Those two guys were just doing a lot of stuff towards the players, and you can only take so much.”
While there has been recent history of ugly fan-player reactions throughout the league, Paul views those as isolated incidents that don’t reflect the overall NBA fan base.
“Got a lot of great fans out there,” Paul said. “And the fans are the ones that make our game great. We just all try to be respectful on both sides.”
Have opinion about current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on Twitter at @DuaneRankin.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Fans ejected from Suns-Wizards game after harassing Monty Williams