Juliana Carlos, a fan at last night’s Lakers-Hawks game in Atlanta, got ejected for removing her mask and yelling at LeBron James from her courtside seat.
Carlos, her husband (Chris Carlos) and the other members of her group won’t face further ban from NBA games.
Dave McMenamin of ESPN:
There will be no ban forthcoming for the four courtside fans ejected from Monday's Hawks-Lakers game, now that the Atlanta Hawks have conducted an investigation into the incident, a league source tells ESPN
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) February 2, 2021
Juliana Carlos:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CKzcVnwgon6/
LeBron said nobody should have even been ejected. It’d be drastic to then ban them from future games.
Juliana Carlos apologized for what seems like a fairly modern incident – one that received outsized attention because it’s easy to paint a white woman in that outfit sitting courtside at an NBA game with those Instagram photos as detestable.
The NBA is thankfully cracking down on fans who spew hateful language. But that seemingly didn’t happen here. Again, not even LeBron wanted anyone ejected.
If there were any reason to ban Carlos, it’s removing her mask. That put others around her at greater risk of contracting coronavirus. Operating amid a pandemic, the NBA should enforce mask-wearing rules to keep everyone safe.
But a zero-tolerance policy isn’t necessarily the best method. It’s habit to remove a face covering when talking to someone. Carlos also apologized for removing her mask.
It seems reasonable to let her move on at this point.
