Why was E40 ejected? Warriors- Kings racial bias controversy explored as Jalen Rose demands apology
Earl Stevens, better known as E40, is a rapper who attended the matchup between the Golden State Warriors and Sacramento Kings on Saturday night. He's a Bay Area legend, which is why he was in attendance supporting his team.
However, the rapper was involved in a verbal confrontation with another fan and was kicked out of the arena. He believes that racial bias is the reason for this and has asked the Kings to investigate the incident.
Jalen Rose, a former NBA player, has defended E40, saying that he deserves an apology. Rose posted a video of the hip-hop artist getting ejected from the arena and claimed that the celebrity Warriors fan did nothing wrong.
E40 was ejected from the Warriors-Kings game for responding to a heckler
The Bay Area rapper was kicked out of the game in the fourth quarter. This was very unfortunate since the game was competitive until the last second. However, the Sacramento Kings prevailed in the end and took a 1-0 lead in the series.
The 55-year-old rapper claims that he was heckled by a Kings fan over the course of the entire game. When he finally decided to respond, arena security approached him and escorted him out of the Golden 1 Center.
My brother @E40 should be receiving an apology. https://t.co/qztCSG2HAl
Stevens has attended numerous NBA games in the past, yet he's never had any issues before. He believes that racial bias has something to do with the incident as he was heckled by a white woman.
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Arena security saw him respond to her and believed that he instigated the incident. However, E40 claimed that he responded to the heckler in a polite manner and asked the Sacramento Kings to investigate the incident.
Jalen Rose, who spent 13 years playing in the NBA, is familiar with the rapper and believes that he did nothing wrong.
Here's what the former NBA star said regarding E40 and the Game 1 incident:
"I'm somebody that knows because I've known him for over 30 years," Rose said. "He don't even move like that. He moves with integrity."
Rose also clarified that he doesn't think the Kings are a racist organization. However, their statement was somewhat unusual.
"These security officers totally fumbled this scenario and mishandled it and overreacted," he added. "And then the Kings compounded by putting out a statement and basically saying he was standing up excessively."
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The former NBA player believes that the Kings should issue an apology to E40 for kicking him out of the game and not disciplining the heckler instead. The organization is still investigating the incident and may decide to do something about it soon.