Ruling on player fan interaction.

[frezer11]

Originally Posted by frezer11

If the scenario in the OP ever happened during one of my games (knock on wood...) I think I would have to exercise this option. If it's a fan in the stands heckling, probably not, the player needs to get over it. But a fan who physically initiates an altercation is a little bit different scenario.

I don't want to be the guy on the forum who is always suggesting a forfeit, I know I brought that up in a recent thread, but I think it's a legitimate discussion for the sake of player safety here, or more likely suspending the game until another time. We all remember the "Malice at the Palace," and that game's final seconds were called off after the incident, and I think rightly so. Of course that was a 15 point game with only 45 seconds left, so a little bit different, but I'd have to be pretty certain that player safety was not an issue to continue this game at this time.

As I take another look at the video, I think forfeit is likely out of the discussion as it really was only one fan, and fairly quickly controlled, so I probably would play on here, but I certainly wouldn't rule out the possibility of suspending the game.