A judge has tossed out a $100 million defamation lawsuit against Russell Westbrook.
The suit stemmed from a March 2019 Utah Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder game in Salt Lake City. During the game, the former Jazz point guard got into an altercation with plaintiffs Shane Keisel and Jennifer Huff. The two were eventually banned indefinitely from the arena.
Westbrook explained at the time that a fan in the stands told him “to get down on his knees like he used to.” According to Sports Illustrated, a video from the incident showed Westbrook saying, “I’ll f— you up” to the fans. The NBA fined him $25,000 for using “threatening language.”
While Westbrook believes that the heckling was racially motivated, Keisel claims that he was only mocking Westbrook for his knees, telling him to “take care of his knees” after noticing the athlete had them covered in towels on the bench.
Keisel claims that the incident caused him to be fired and exposed him to online threats. He believes that Westbrook’s and former Jazz owner Gail Miller portrayed him and Huff as being racist.
Despite Keisel’s pity party, Judge Derek P. Pullan concluded that being called “racist” is a matter of opinion, which makes Westbrook and the Jazz’s statement protected under opinion privilege.
