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Report: Fan Charged with Assaulting Pelicans' Joe Boylan Banned from NBA Events
November 4, 2019
The NBA notified teams Saturday that 38-year-old Manuel Garcia, who allegedly punched New Orleans Pelicans assistant coach Joe Boylan in the face during the team's game against the Houston Rockets on Oct. 26, has been banned from all NBA, WNBA, G League and 2K League events, Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium reported Sunday.
Charania noted an NBA spokesperson confirmed the ban.
The league-wide ban follows the Rockets banning Garcia for life. Garcia was charged with misdemeanor assault, and his girlfriend was also arrested.
Video of the on-court assault can be seen here.
The Pelicans offered "no further comment" in a statement to ESPN.
Prior to the regular season, the NBA implemented a "zero-tolerance" policy for "abusive or hateful behavior" by fans. The league's executive vice president and chief security officer Jerome Pickett expanded in a statement, per the Associated Press (h/t ESPN):
"We've added any sexist language or LGBTQ language, any denigrating language in that way, anything that is non-basketball-related. So 'your mother' comments, talking about your family, talking about test scores, anything non-basketball-related, we've added that in as well as being something that we will go and pull a fan out of the seat and investigate what happened."
While that announcement on Oct. 21 dealt primarily with verbal abuse from fans, Garcia's alleged physical assault appears to be the first reported fan ban by a team or the NBA in the young 2019-20 NBA season.
Boylan was promoted to assistant coach and director of player development in September and originally joined the Pelicans for the 2018-19 season as an assistant coach and player development coach. He came to New Orleans from the Memphis Grizzlies, where he worked in player development and as the associate head coach of their G League affiliate. Before that, he served in various roles for the Golden State Warriors.