This entry was posted on Thursday, May 15th, 2008 at 6:26 pm and is filed under Basketball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
I’ve heard reports of the general jackassery of some Utah Jazz fans before, but the latest couple of incidents are just too much. A bit of background first: Derek Fisher was a playoff hero last season for the Jazz. His infant daughter had just been diagnosed with a rare form of eye cancer. Fisher went to be with his daughter during her emergency surgery in New York. When the Fishers landed back in Utah, the Jazz were in the middle of a playoff game, and both other point guards were in trouble (one with fouls, the other with an injury). He rushed back to the stadium and made it into the game in the third quarter, making a much needed impact defensively.
And oh, yeah, he also iced the game in overtime.
Why the backstory? Well, Fisher was granted a release from the Jazz after last season so that he could live closer to the specialists that could help his daughter. It was a classy move all around. Fisher ended up with the Lakers and as luck would have it, the Lakers would play the Jazz in the 2008 Playoffs. You’d expect a warm homecoming for Fisher in Utah, right? Wrong. Here’s the story, via Bleacher Report:
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Leading 2-0, the Lakers arrived in Salt Lake City on May 9 and as they took the court, boos filled the stadium for Derek Fisher. Had they forgotten everything he had done for their team? Did they realize why he had to leave and what he was going through? But this story doesn’t end there.Utah won Game Three, but in Game Four, things got worse.
As Derek Fisher went to the line to shoot free throw after a technical foul, a fan behind the basket covered his right eye and began screaming at the Lakers’ point guard.
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Seriously? On the list of crappy things to do to another human being, “taunting him about his young daughter’s rare eye cancer” has to be near the top.
Here’s a question: what can anyone do about this kind of behavior? Clemson University dealt with it a few years ago when certain fans yelled ethnic slurs during baseball games. Clemson ended up posting letters around the stadium asking fans to represent the university with class, and it seemed to have a positive effect.
Another possible solution is a bit more direct. If you’re in the stands and hear someone yelling racial slurs or just being a jackass in general, tell him to shut up. That goes double for fans of your own team, since they’re making you look bad by extension. Maybe if more fans have this attitude, the jerks of the world won’t consider sports arenas acceptable venues in which to show out.
May 16th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
[...] Forest University Dealing with Bad Fan Behavior » This Summary is from an article posted at ath1337 on Thursday, May 15, 2008 I’ve heard [...]
May 17th, 2008 at 10:58 am
I completely agree with you on this topic. Also in games three and four when Fisher was shooting free throws faint chants of “CANCER, CANCER” could be heard. This is just taking it way too far. As if nobody in that stadium has cancer or knows somebody with cancer. That is so offensive on so many levels.
In game 6, where the Lakers finally knocked out the Utah Jazz at home, loud chants of either “LAKERS SUCK” or “LAKERS FLOP” one of the two when the Jazz were losing by a large margin. They proceeded to blame the loss by screaming at the refs after any call did not go there way, even though in the end the number of fouls called against each team was almost exactly equal. Finally towards the end of the game the announcer said that the fans were acting like 4 year-olds because they began to throw stuff at the laker bench. This is all on top of the racial slurs they screamed with fervor when the golden state warriors came. And their chants of “OVERRATED” for both Tracy McGrady and LeBron James.
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:56 am
[...] http://www.ath1337.net/dealing-with-bad-fan-behavior/ [...]
June 13th, 2008 at 12:36 am
I would agree. I think the $4 gas per gallon will change a lot of this..
July 8th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
i am a jazz fan and this is very sad. i was sad when he came here in the season and people booed him. in 2007 the jazz fans woke up and went crazy over there team. it was cool it was so loud and yet people trashed it by chanting refs suck or the other team suck. be positive. i was at a playoff game and the fans started chanting ref you suck i didn’t join in and started chanting utah jazz. i belive in positive cheering. this one fans isn’t all the jazz fans. like me, the majority of them just cheered.
G O J A Z Z