Bring in da noise! Leave out da funk...
One LATimes story begins: Pass the earplugs. The headache reliever too.Another:
Welcome back to, uh . . . heck. We're not only not in Lakerdom anymore, we're about as far away as we can get.With a make or break game looming on Jazz turf, Utah fans are seen as a crucial force in the outcome. Lakers Coach Phil Jackson described the din at EnergySolutions Arena:
This is the Anti-Lakerdom...
I think it's over the safety limits, isn't it? When I went to sleep my ears were still ringing after the ballgame in Utah. They have pyrotechnics on the floor, they were doing all kinds of stuff. They really pumped the crowd up, and it's very close quarters for a large crowd like that. There's a lot of intensity there.So much intensity, that the Lakers and their allies are apoplectic about Utah fan behavior that they describe as "classless" and, sarcastically, "truly charming."
This photo above is just part of it. The Bleacher Report runs down some other Jazz fan offenses.
When asked the difference between playing on the road and at home during the series against the Jazz, Warrior's forward Stephen Jackson said, ""Well, we're not hearing racial slurs, we're not hearing people wishing for me to go to jail," Jackson said. "That's the difference for me. I'm loved here in Oakland."Then there was the unnerving alleged mocking of Derek Fisher's daughter's cancer.
Jason Richardson was asked about the racial slurs and responded, "That was something new. It shocked all of us. We weren't expecting that. I mean, [Jazz fans] were trying to get into our heads any way they can, but I couldn't believe anybody would stoop that low. It's nonsense."
For Utah fans, at least, basketball is anything but a non-contact sport.
4 Comments:
I work on the floor of ESA, and I have never heard a racial slur.....
Anonymous said should open his ears. I've been to a few Jazz games in SLC and I've heard the N word many times.
Utah fans are classless lowlifes. I understand their behavior as an insecure's blanket. Mormons around the nation are considered weird and Utah is looked upon as 18th Century.
So, give the people an outlet and they go with gusto. Lots of spittle, hate, N words, blind- and cancer-bashing, anything. There is no limit to their stupidity.
I'd love to see them show up at the Lakers' arena and try the same stunts. Talk about quick removal.
I've been to dozens of Jazz games over the past 25 years and have never heard a racial slur either.
I've sat in the first ten rows, in the nose bleed section, and in the corporate suites and have never once heard Jazz fans talk like this.
Statistically speaking, there have to be a couple jerks in a crowd of nearly 20,000, but you'll find that anywhere.
Claiming Jazz fans (read: Mormons) are racist is quite the irony, since the claims only have credibility due to other people's unfounded misperceptions of Mormons as being just a bunch of white-shirt-instead-of-brown-shirt-wearing Nazis.
Good one, John. Your own personal prejudice against Mormons is quite evident - you are using racial claims as a reason to criticize the Mormon community. In other words, I guess you can say that you were given an outlet...and you went with gusto!
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