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Sitting courtside during an NBA game can be one of the most surreal experiences for a fan. You get to watch the best basketball players in the world just a few feet away, but that proximity also comes with a certain risk.
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Players can dive into the stands while trying to save a loose ball and sometimes fans can end up caught in the middle of the action. That appeared to be the case during an incident involving Karl Malone.
The 6’9″, 250-pound forward was usually willing to put his body on the line to make a play, but one particular collision allegedly left a female fan claiming the two-time MVP had struck her. The incident eventually resulted in a complaint being filed against Malone over a possible assault.
According to Brina Sanft, who was the fan from Seattle in question, the 14-time All-Star “started swearing and then hit her in the head and chest with the fist.”
However, before the allegations could catch fire, the Utah Jazz front office quickly stepped in to protect the integrity of their star forward.
Malone made life tough for the women
According to the police report, Sanft was allowed to return to her seat but claimed fans subsequently harassed her. Eventually, she had to be escorted out of the arena, taken to the hotel and then later to the airport, forcing her to miss the entire second half of the contest.
While that initial account portrayed Sanft as the victim, Dave Allred, who was then the Jazz’s vice president of public relations, strongly disputed several aspects of the report.
Allred insisted that Sanft did watch the remainder of the game and said the organization had even offered to move her to different seats. His seats were directly behind the Seattle SuperSonics’ bench, and he believed she might have been more comfortable there.
He also offered to have security escort her to her car after the game, yet Sanft declined.
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“She said, ‘I paid for these seats, and I want to sit here,’” Allred recalled. “We were dang nice to her . . . I even got her two Cokes. If she was uncomfortable the second half, it was her own fault; she had the option to move to a less volatile area.”
Related: “He’ll have 80 points on you” – Jerry Sloan knew Shaquille O’Neal was a problem for the Utah Jazz in the 1998 WCF
Allred was bent on defending Malone
Allred’s defense of Malone went beyond questioning Sanft’s account. He also revealed that he watched the game footage because he wanted to determine what actually had happened.
And after that, he not only failed to understand how Karl had struck Sanft but also declared there was no clear indication to support such a complaint, especially since it occurred during an NBA game.
“It would have been impossible,” he said. “There wasn’t anything intentional about what he did.”
The situation ultimately highlighted one of the unusual challenges NBA players can face when fans are positioned so close to the action.
A routine attempt to save a possession can quickly turn into an incident involving spectators, security personnel, and even the police. Fortunately for The Mailman, the Utah Jazz organization was determined to make sure the situation did not become an unnecessary source of controversy.
Related: “It was embarrassing the way I played” – Karl Malone on his brutal shooting slump at the start of the 1997 NBA Finals
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