Poor Sports in Utah
If you watched Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals between the Utah Jazz and San Antonio Spurs on Monday night, you saw the worst display of sportsmanship in the 2007 NBA playoffs thus far. No, it was not Jerry Sloan getting ejected, nor was it Derek Fisher getting the heave ho at the end of the game either. This honor goes to the sold out crowd packed inside of Energy Solutions Arena who constantly jeering the basketball officials over the course of the game.
Throughout the game, there were several moments where the Jazz fans booed the officials, chanted "Refs you s***!" and from an overall perspective, made this NBA playoff game look like an European soccer match with all the whistling and jeering that went on. Not only was the behavior by the fans alone a display of poor sportsmanship, but what bugged me even more was that the fans had no reason to yell at the officials, as the officiating crew did a great job reffing this crucial playoff game. Even the trio of commentators televising the game on ESPN felt the same way as they mutually agreed that the officials did a great job and said so on the air several times. The real proof in the pudding however was shown in the replays as whenever there was a questionable call, close-up replays shown on TV showed the officials getting calls right, which basically was like evidence of OJ Simpson's glove not fitting in the court of law.
Sure, its one thing to get on referees for screwing up a certain call, but what was going on in Utah tonight was a totally absurd situation as the fans harped on the officials frequently. Being a basketball official myself, I watched part of this game on ESPN, and the Utah fans were frequently arguing over stuff that wasn't even that controversial. All in all, if I had to compare the Jazz fans tonight to somebody, it would have to be Rasheed Wallace, the most factious player in the NBA today. This is because at times, it seemed that there were 19,911 carbon copies of him in the stands complaining about every little call...just like Rasheed does in real life.
The Jazz fans went that extra mile to try and protect their undefeated home playoff record at home. Too bad they did it in poor taste, and proved to be a very spiteful bunch, in the process.
Labels: poor sports, sore losers, sportsmanship
