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College donor ousted for confronting basketball player who shot during national anthem
A community college donor was voted out of the booster club after confronting a player who shot warm-ups during the national anthem. (Getty Images)

College donor ousted for confronting basketball player who shot during national anthem

In early November, Garden City Community College kicked a basketball player off the team after he shot warm-ups during the national anthem.

Now, the school’s booster club has ousted the 74-year-old board member who stormed out on the court to confront the player for disrespecting the flag.

Jim Howard is a native of Garden City, Kansas, and has donated to the college for 32 years. He said he was voted out of his position as a Broncbuster Athletic Association board member after the confrontation.

When the player, Rasool Samir, came out of the locker room to shoot around while the national anthem played, Howard entered the court after the song to chastise Samir.

“I told him if you don’t respect the flag, get out of this gym. Get off the floor and get out of the gym and he proceeded to tell me he didn’t have to,” Howard told the Todd Starnes Show. “At least respect the people that paid for your scholarship to get you on this campus – like myself and everyone else in that gym.”

According to a letter written by Garden City Community College’s attorney, the school even considered filing battery, assault or disorderly conduct charges against Howard.

“Like I told campus police, [Samir] did not physically attack me. I did not physically attack him,” Howard said. “If we touched each other, that would have been — no penalty, no foul, incidental contact.”

Howard believes that Samir went out of his way to disrespect the anthem, because both teams were in the locker room as the song played, yet Samir came out during the song to shoot around.

“This was definitely an ‘in your face’ move,” Howard said. “He knew exactly what he was doing because he was waiting for it to happen.”

Howard told the Garden City Telegram that he regrets saying after the incident that he would stop supporting the college if Samir was allowed to continue as a student. Samir withdrew from the college after being removed from the basketball team.

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