Chinese Basketball League bans fan for life and suspends coach Memi Becirovic after altercation
- Fan had heckled and pushed the Jiangsu Dragons coach’s wife and directed verbal abuse at the Liaoning Flying Leopards
- Slovenian coach must sit out Sunday’s clash with the Nanjing Monkey Kings following an automatic game suspension on Friday
China’s professional basketball league banned a Jiangsu Dragons supporter for life on Saturday and suspended the team’s head coach for a second game after the pair clashed earlier this week.
The Chinese Basketball Association said on social media on Saturday that the fan would be blacklisted from all future CBA games and that coach Memi Becirovic would sit out Sunday’s clash with the Nanjing Monkey Kings, following an automatic game suspension on Friday.
Video of the incident shows Becirovic, former coach of Slovenia, arguing with the fan and then slapping or grabbing him during a home game on Wednesday against the Liaoning Flying Leopards.
Earlier, the supporter had directed verbal abuse and insulting gestures at the Flying Leopards and pushed Becirovic’s wife twice when she tried to stop him, the CBA said.
Liaoning went on to defeat Jiangsu 111-103 after play was halted for five minutes.
The league said police had punished the fan, identified as Wang Youcheng, but didn’t indicate whether he had been fined or detained.