Caps forward: Racial taunts ‘disgusting’
Smith-pelly insulted by Blackhawks fans
BUFFALO, N.Y. — This wasn’t the first time Devante Smith-pelly has had racial taunts directed at him during a hockey game.
And the Washington Capitals forward knew immediately what the intent of the message was when a few fans began chanting “basketball, basketball, basketball” while Smith-pelly sat in the penalty box during a 7-1 loss at Chicago on Saturday night. Smith-pelly, a black player in a sport dominated by white athletes, heard a similar taunt years before while playing in a tournament in British Columbia.
“It’s pretty obvious what that means. It’s not really a secret,” Smith-pelly said after the Capitals practiced in Buffalo on Sunday. “Whether it’s that word or any other word, I got the idea. And I’m sure they got the idea, too. Just one word, and that’s really all it takes.”
What stunned the 25-year-old is how incidents such as these keep happening.
“It’s disgusting,” Smith-pelly said. “You’d think there would be some sort of change or progression, but we’re still working toward it, I guess, and we’re going to keep working toward it.”
The Blackhawks and United Center officials reacted swiftly by ejecting four fans shortly after an off-ice official sitting next to Smith-pelly — serving a fighting major for a scrap with Chicago’s Connor Murphy — notified building security.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman released a statement Sunday, saying the league condemns the fans’ behavior as being “unacceptable and reprehensible.”
“While this was isolated in nature,