The Denver Nuggets hosted the Memphis Grizzlies at Ball Arena on Monday night, giving them a solid 25-point shellacking, but without the cheers or greetings of a longtime Nuggets fan. Vicki Ray. She remains absent from Nuggets games after Kronke Sports and Entertainment’s decision to ban her from Ball Arena.
Another big crowd showed up, even though the Nuggets were facing a team seemingly in a state of perpetual torpor this season.
“It looks like there might be another way to do this,” Nuggets fan Kirk Quinn said entering the game. “I strongly believe in second chances.”
It was difficult to find support for the decision to ban Ray, a season ticket holder for 32 years.
Photo by Karl Gehring/The Denver Post via Getty Images
“For what?” asked Sara Karger. “But if she can’t follow the rules, then, yes.”
Kroenke Sports and Entertainment, which declined our requests for an interview, released an additional statement on the ban Monday, but did not identify Ray personally: “Specific incidents included unwanted contact with participants. The inappropriate behavior continued even after repeated warnings. We are open and transparent with what is and is not acceptable behavior. This fan has violated these terms multiple times.
Ray told CBS News Colorado that she was accused of grabbing a referee and then accused of punching a player in the face. She denies both.
“I didn’t catch anyone,” she said. “Almost all of them (the referees) stopped and hugged me and kissed me on the cheek. When they come out, when they come in, when they come out, when they come in.”
A video from another fan from earlier this year shows players and referees interacting with Ray.
“I’m like, ‘What? No, no, no.’ I didn’t want to believe it,” said Brandy Costello, who sits in the same row as Ray and shared the video.
Courtesy / Brandy Costello
“It’s not the players or the coaches. None of them. I would never say it’s one of them with these crazy accusations,” she remarked, explaining that since 2018, she and her husband shared seats with friends. , she has never seen Ray act inappropriately.
“The players and coaches love Miss Vicki. I have a video to show they love her, they hug her,” Costello said.
She considers herself a friend of Ray. She says Ray helped her son have the audacity to come forward and meet an NBA star.
“It inspired him. He just needed a little edge,” Costello said. “And sometimes you just need someone to say you can do it, you can. And that was Miss Vicki. To this day, he loves Miss Vicki.”
Costello said she would like to give Ray her tickets to the remaining Nuggets games this season, but she can’t because her friend is now barred from attending Nuggets games at the arena. She wonders why there was no other option: “Whatever happened to a little slap on the wrist and being told not to do that again?”
“I don’t know what they’re doing, but I’m not going to lie down and play dead,” Ray said. Her friend would like a break for her. “At least they can give her more respect and really sit down with her and give her an opportunity. Show her that,” Costello said.
