"We feel humiliated," the 32-year-old tells Westword. "What happened ruined my whole experience in Denver."
Benson, 32, was sitting in Section 120, Row 1, seats 10 and 11, with a woman he's been dating when a "contractor" wearing a Kroenke Sports & Entertainment photo I.D. badge sitting in the row behind them confronted the couple about their courtside tickets. Benson and the woman are Black; the contractor appears to be white.
A video that the Houston native captured with his cell phone shows Benson calling out the man, who proceeds to hide his KSE badge in his shirt after Benson informs him that he's "about to go viral tonight." The footage has been watched more than two million times on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram.
KSE was quick to distance itself from the unidentified man involved in the incident, with Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Declan Bolger telling Westword: "This gentleman does not work for us. He's a contractor."
According to Bolger, as soon as KSE was made aware of the incident, it conducted an internal investigation and found that "the person in the videos is not an employee of the Denver Nuggets, Kroenke Sports or the NBA." He says KSE "will be taking corrective action with that individual shortly," but couldn't reveal what it would be. The man is described as someone who uses a KSE badge to "pick up equipment at the airport, like the players' stuff." He contracts with opposing teams, "so if the Houston Rockets come in and they need somebody to pick up their gear and bring it to the airport, [he does that]," Bolger says.
"We've been in touch with Mr. Benson, and we've apologized to Mr. Benson, because the actions don't reflect us," Bolger tells Westword. "We've spoken extensively with him, and we're looking forward to having Mr. Benson join us at a future Nuggets game." KSE and the Nuggets have offered to refund Benson's tickets, according to Bolger, but the Bayou City resident isn't satisfied — and has officially lawyered up.
"A refund isn't a proper solution," Benson blasts. "I do feel better that they reached out, but once I speak to my attorney, we'll figure out what the proper solution is. ... I was racially profiled and humiliated, and I had to use social media to defend myself."
The footage, which was first posted to Benson's Instagram page, has been shared by prominent social media pages like GrindFace TV and on Roland Martin's daily "Unfiltered" broadcast. It shows the KSE contractor smiling and making comments to Benson as he calls out the man for allegedly profiling him. "My man being racist because I bought these tickets and he's going to tell the security to check my tickets because [he's] racist in 2023," Benson says on video.
"How much did you pay for them?" the contractor repeatedly asks, to which Benson replies: "It don't matter, I bought them." The contractor then says, "I want to know how much they were listed for, that's all I'm asking."
A Nuggets security guard can be seen checking Benson and his guest's tickets. Benson tells Westword that the guard was polite and apologized for the incident. As the guard checks his tickets, Benson says on video: "Shout out to the Denver Nuggets. We come all the way out from Houston to come and watch the Denver Nuggets game and we get this mistreatment because we bought tickets and we got this pig being racist."
According to Benson, a guard had checked their tickets as the couple entered the section. Benson says that not long after he and his female companion sat down, the contractor began making comments about them and allegedly asked another security guard to check the tickets.
"You know these aren't your seats," Benson recalls the man saying. "I was like, 'What?' And my girl, she's sitting next to me, and we watch him nudge towards security and ask them to come over and check our tickets. So security came over to us and pretty much was like, 'Hey, I need to see your ticket.' And I'm like, 'Well why didn't you want to check everyone else's tickets?' He only checked ours. So in that moment, I felt racially profiled. The guy kept going on about 'Where's your tickets'? and 'How much you pay for them?' Why do you need to know what I paid for my ticket? I bought my ticket and I'm sitting here."
While Benson has been getting lots of attention and support for what he did in the video — calling out his alleged profiler and bringing awareness to incidents like this — it's what he felt off-camera that will unfortunately stick with him.
"My entire night was ruined," Benson says. "After it happened, everyone was sitting there having a great time watching the game, but I couldn't. It was humiliating. And honestly, no one should be made to feel this way. No one should ever go out to have a good time at an NBA game and be profiled over where they're sitting. It could be any race, it's not just Black people. Nobody should have to go to a game and because they have good seats they're being profiled. That's not what I came to Denver for. We had a great experience — Denver is great, it's beautiful. But this moment right here ruined everything for me."
While Benson is currently weighing possible litigation, his mind isn't made up yet. "I'm gonna pray about it, but right now I am not going that route just yet," he tells Westword. "But I do have people saying, 'Hey, look, if you want to talk about it, we can go there.'" He confirms that he's already found legal counsel and has been discussing a possible case, saying: "We'll figure it all out."
If there's one thing Benson wants the public — and the KSE contractor, specifically — to learn from his experience, it's to recognize that certain behaviors or comments may not seem wrong, but they can still be "racist" and deemed inappropriate by others. So we need to adjust and grow from that, he says.
"We need to do better," Benson charges. "Why can't a Black person in 2023 come and watch a sport in the front row where the majority of the profession is Black-dominated? Why is that shocking to people? It's something we need to look at. I hope that moving forward, if this story helps the next situation — the next Black person or whatever race there is — from being profiled, then I feel I've done my job."
