Reports Indicate Texas Tech Fan Used Inappropriate Language Towards Marcus Smart

On Saturday night the Texas Tech Red Raiders pulled off an upset at home by beating Oklahoma State Cowboys  the no.19 ranked team in the country 65-61. Unfortunately the win got marred by an incident involving a fan named Jeff Orr and guard Marcus Smart with six seconds left in the game.

Thanks to social media the video of what happened went viral showing Smart exchanging words and then shoving Orr. He was quickly escorted away by teammates and did receive a technical foul for his actions, yet the referees did not eject him from the game. A player made physical contact with a fan seems like that’s ground for an automatic disqualification. Curtis Shaw the Big 12 coordinator of officials said “the officials don’t have jurisdiction to eject a player who is involved in an altercation with a fan.”

He further went on to say “we don’t have a rule to get involved when the player is involved with a fan. We don’t know what was said. The official, Doug Sirmons, didn’t know what was said.”

A tweet from Doug Gottlieb of CBS shows that Orr admits to crossing the line.

Jeff Orr to a #TexasTech friend of mine via text “I kinda let my mouth say something I shouldn’t have,I feel bad” #MarcusSmart

— Doug Gottlieb (@GottliebShow) February 9, 2014

Here’s the actual screen shot of the conversation.

Text convo from my Tech friend w/Orr- Orr is Tech’s biggest fan-everyone knows him, he goes to every game pic.twitter.com/1ZlN6gAdz3

— Doug Gottlieb (@GottliebShow) February 9, 2014

Now what was actually said? Still hasn’t come out yet though Smart claims he got called a racial slur and many believe Orr told him to “go back to Africa.”

Stuart Scott tweeted.

Okla news stations reporting fan told Smart “Go back to Africa”..IF TRUE..Smart’s “shove” still wrong…BUT…19yrold kid…I UNDERSTAND!!

— Stuart Scott (@StuartScott) February 9, 2014

It’s understandable that a 19-year old such as Smart had such a strong reaction to what got said and can’t blame him for shoving Orr. Hopefully he will also learn from the mistake and take responsibility for his actions. As for Orr he’s an adult and yet didn’t act like one and that is why Texas Tech must ban him from their arena.