Cal alleges fan called Bears player ‘terrorist’ before heated exchange

LATEST Nov. 22, 6:02 p.m. Cal is calling on the SoCal Challenge tournament director to ban a fan who allegedly made “abhorrent and offensive comments” directed at basketball player Fardaws Aimaq during Monday’s game against UTEP, including allegedly calling Aimaq a “terrorist.”

Aimaq proceeded to go into the stands after the game, getting into a face-to-face confrontation with a fan and pointing his finger directly in the fan’s face while threatening, “You want to talk some s—t? I’ll slap the f—k out of you, bitch.”

In response to an SFGATE request for comment about the incident, Cal head coach Mark Madsen said in an emailed statement:

“Throughout and after Monday’s game, Fardaws Aimaq was allegedly subjected to abhorrent and offensive comments from a fan – including being called a terrorist. I have asked the SoCal Challenge tournament director that a formal investigation be conducted and that this fan be barred from the premises.

Fardaws and I had an important conversation today about how he needs to maintain his composure regardless of what takes place in a game or what is said to him directly. I am disturbed that Fardaws was allegedly on the receiving end of such language, and I’m disappointed that he confronted this fan in the stands. Fardaws understands my expectations for how he as a student-athlete conducts himself. The consequences related to this situation will be managed internally.”

Aimaq’s parents are from Afghanistan, but fled the country during the war with the Soviet Union in the late 1980s. The Aimaqs went to Germany and Toronto before eventually settling in Vancouver, British Columbia, where Fardaws was born.

Nov. 22, 1:30 p.m. A Cal men’s basketball player went into the stands after a game on Monday to confront and threaten a fan.

A video shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, shows Cal forward Fardaws Aimaq climbing up the bleachers and getting face-to-face with a man. At one point, Aimaq points his finger directly in the man’s face and threatens him.

“You want to talk some s—t? I’ll slap the f—k out of you, bitch,” Aimaq says. Aimaq then walks back down toward the bench and away from the man he threatened as other fans in the stands tell Aimaq to “Grow up.”

Cal athletics did not immediately respond to SFGATE’s request for comment about the video or Aimaq’s status for Wednesday’s game against Tulane.

It is unclear what was said that led Aimaq to go into the stands after Cal lost 75-72 to UTEP on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer on Monday night at the SoCal Challenge, a tournament being held on the campus of Junipero Serra (JSerra) High School in San Juan Capistrano.

According to the box score, 529 fans were in attendance at the 2,000-seat gym, and the Cal-UTEP game was the last of the four games played at JSerra on Monday. Aimaq was Cal’s leading scorer on the night, with 18 points on 9-of-13 shooting, and was also Cal’s leading rebounder, grabbing 11 boards. But he was also a team-high minus-15 and battled foul trouble, ultimately fouling out of the game in just 27 minutes played.

Aimaq is a sixth-year player who transferred to Cal from Texas Tech. Prior to playing at Texas Tech, Aimaq played for first-year Cal head coach Mark Madsen at Utah Valley, where he was the Western Athletic Conference’s Player of the Year once and Defensive Player of the Year twice.

Madsen’s transfer-heavy roster was expected to help Cal start a quick turnaround after the program went 3-29 last season and 38-87 during fired head coach Mark Fox’s four years in Berkeley. But the Bears have limped out of the gates to a 2-3 record to open the season, losing at home to Pacific and Montana State before the buzzer-beating loss against UTEP on Monday.

Cal will face Tulane at 9:45 p.m. PT on Wednesday in the same JSerra gym as Monday’s game.