Kevin Love at one point was the most beloved athlete in the state of Oregon. His home state fans were certain he would attend the University of Oregon in the Fall of 2007 and turn the men’s basketball team into a Final Four contender. Love had the makings of a homecoming king.
That is, until he signed a letter of intent to play at UCLA.
This did not sit too well with some Oregon fans, to say the least. When UCLA arrived in Salem, Oregon for a conference game against the Ducks, Love received anonymous death threats on his cellphone even one caller threatened to have his whole family killed if UCLA beat Oregon.
The culture of fans behaving badly is hardly a secret in the world of sports. The most publicized incident was the 2004 NBA brawl between the Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons fans. 2003-2004 NBA Defensive Player Of The Year Ron Artest ran up into the stands and started fighting with fans after he had a cup thrown at him. His teammate Stephen Jackson joined in sparking an all-out melee.
During the Game 6 of the 2005 NBA Western Conference Semifinals in Seattle, San Antonio Spurs forward Tim Duncan injured his ankle in the 4th Quarter. Seattle fans attending the game roared in applause and cheered loudly as Duncan rolled on the floor in pain. Then Duncan gets up and the fans boo him.
This incident does not compared to the incidents involving Love and Artest, but perhaps is a sense of bad taste.
The incident was strikingly similar to the treatment Philadelphia fans gave Cowboys Hall Of Fame Wide Receiver Michael Irvin when he injured his spine during a game between the Cowboys and the rival Eagles.
The fans even booed the paramedics for carrying Irvin off the field in a stretcher.
These incidents are a result of sports fans who need reality checks. Competitiveness is contagious which can be a positive or negative thing.
Competitiveness can easily turn into blind aggression and ruin the fun atmosphere that sports provides us.
Fans have to remember that it is a game. Even though athletes benefit from financially lucrative contracts, they are human beings and do not deserve to be disrespected or abused in any way.
They are simply working for our entertainment, which they work very hard at. They are not curing cancer or fighting a war in Iraq, so there is no reason to take sports so seriously that it brings out the worst in us.
For example, I am a die-hard San Antonio Spurs fan. Does that mean when I see Mavericks fan or a Lakers fan I should disrespect and degrade him? Is he or she any less of a human being than me? Obviously the answer to both questions is absolutely not.
Thrash talking has its limits. You can make fun of a rival team for losing or not playing well or anything that involves the actual game. It just makes you look like an idiot when you degrade a complete stranger just for wearing a rival team’s colors.
Most sports fans are great fans. They cheer passionately for the team and display good sportsmanship and class even when their teams aren’t doing well. Unfortunately, there are a lot of sports fans who simply need reality checks.
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