Because the player is black and the fan is white, so it has to be racism, right?

Via Yahoo! News:

Fans who profanely belittle, demean and insult college athletes from the safe haven of the stands are among the lowest forms of human life.

But there is one line athletes cannot cross. They cannot go into the stands and lay hands on a fan – no matter what is said.

Oklahoma State guard Marcus Smart crossed that line Saturday night at Texas Tech. After crashing to the floor beneath one basket, Smart leapt up and shockingly went to the edge of the stands at United Spirit Arena to shove an older man in the chest with two hands late in a 65-61 upset loss to the Red Raiders.

In a significant officiating lapse, Smart was not ejected from the game and was merely assessed one technical foul. That created the potential for an escalation as Smart sat on the bench for the final seconds of the game, and especially when the game ended and Texas Tech fans rushed the court. Smart appeared to become more aggravated after the game and had to be herded off the floor by an Oklahoma State staffer.

This was a terrible incident that was terribly handled by all decision makers involved.

Here comes the baseless suggestion with not a shred of evidence to back it up:

We don’t know what Smart heard to trigger his complete loss of composure. I certainly hope there was no racist language involved – and if there was, I can only imagine the difficulty ignoring such a thing in the heat of that moment. And I hope that fan is never allowed back in the arena. But in my mind, even the most vile of language would not have justified Smart’s actions. For that reason, the consequences of that egregious breach of athlete behavior should be severe.