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US: Fan banned from basketball arenas for aiming laser at player
09 Jan 2016 -- Categories: Non-aviation incidents
A Houston Rockets player had a laser pointer aimed at him, during a January 4 2016 National Basketball Association game against the Utah Jazz. The player, James Harden, pointed to the stands.
The perpetrator was found and was ejected from the arena:
He was later banned from NBA arenas for a year.
After the game, Harden said “Some guy was lasering me. I saw it the first time and I thought it was a picture being taken. I went to the foul line again and it happened again. The referee [Tom Washington] caught it before I did. That’s the first time that happened to me.”
Two days later, Harden told ESPN “That's just disrespectful, not just to a basketball player, anybody. Whoever that guy was he wouldn't want to be lasered in the face, so that was disrespectful. It's not my call [on the fan being banned], I'm just trying not to get blind."
From the Houston Chronicle, SB Nation and USA Today