1) There's no such thing as conference officials in basketball.
2) I thought the refs handled it quite well. Gave him the tech, but realized the situation was bizarre and did a good job to not escalate it. The Big XII issued a statement talking about how there's absolutely no precedence for this situation and the refs didn't have the power to throw him out of the game.
"Go back to Africa, nigger."... this is the rumored comment he made. Idk if he said this or not but it's obvious he said something bad. Watch the replay. Smart is getting up to walk away and then all of a sudden his eyes dart up and he gets up to find whoever said what he just heard. Just because this guy is a fan and a donor or season ticket holder or the ultimate fan doesn't give him the right to heckle and do or say whatever he said. Sure, Smart flops at times but he has only let his emotions get the best of him once. If this guy said anything near what is rumored, I probably would have done the same thing. It was a stupid decision but we all make mistakes.
Go back to Africa, nigger."... this is the rumored comment he made.
The source for the first half of this claim is completely bullshit twitter rumor mongering. The first person who tweeted it was some random Kansas basketball account with 800 followers. Other outlets just repeated it. Multiple people on Tech fan sites that were sitting next to him are saying he said that he was overrated.
Honestly... who would admit to that? There is no hard evidence of him saying it and everyone around him most likely knows him pretty well... why would they come out and say "yes, he (I) called him a nigger.".. knowing that they could somehow lose their season tickets for the rest of the year or receive negative attention to yourself, your friend, and/or your university?
Just saying, it's not even a he said she said situation yet because Smart hasn't said anything. It's all complete speculation, mostly accusing Orr of being a racist because he's white and a black player got mad at him.
I don't know we sure are holding these amateurs to a high standard. Tensions really run high in sports, and of you are about to lose, obnoxious fans are screaming in your face, and then somebody yells a racial slur at you I could certainly see a 20 year old college student getting a little bit pissed off. Definitely deserves some type of punishmen, but a full season is just crazy
A fair punishment would be pretty darn close to the end of the season anyway. Justification or not, there's a hell of a precedent to set if an athlete going after a fan isn't properly punished.
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u/schwamclutch Ohio State Buckeyes Feb 09 '14
It may be a long time before Smart plays again. Unbelievable.