Jamal Murray needs to thank Denver Nuggets teammate Nikola Jokic and a referee for keeping him out of trouble Thursday night. The Denver Nuggets were in Detroit Thursday night to face the Pistons and Murray was being heckled by a Pistons fan.

According to reports, Murray was ready to head to the stands and confront the heckler. During the incident, which was caught on tape, you could hear several Piston fans heckling Murray, but this fan went too far.

The fan apparently called Murray a “boy” and told the Nuggets star that “he ain’t gonna do ****!”

Before you knew it, Jamal Murray and the fan exchanged words, and Jokic and a referee had to step in and stop things from getting worse.

Security intervened and escorted the fan out of the building without incident. There have been several cases over the years of NBA fans heckling players and being escorted out of the arena.

LeBron James had an incident in Atlanta with a woman near the courtside who heckled him. Like the Murray incident, the lady was later escorted from the arena.

There have been also reports of racial heckling at NBA games, especially in Utah where the Jazz play.  The NBA, however, has done a much better job over the years of handling these types of situations and keeping them from getting out of hand.

{TMZ Sports}