A Coach Fires Back

Best advise I have ever got is don’t feed a troll or a heckler. They will starve and go away.

Until I joined Blazersedge, I was never exposed to fans who hated players on their own team. The same could be said for fans that lust after players on other teams. Back when I was just a naive fan looking for more information on my favorite team, I just assumed we all loved the players on our team, warts and all, and we hated and sometimes begrudgingly respected players on other teams. Sometimes I miss the good old days.

Seriously, though, I’m glad we have the distance and anonimity of the internet so we can say whatever we want about these big guys who would pretty much squash me like a bug.

I go to the Rose Garden to do what I can, within the bounds of appropriate social conduct, to help the Blazers win. If I can have a negative effect on the opponents by heckling them, I’m going to do it.

I’ve told this story before on this site but I’ll briefly recap it here. A couple of years ago my brother and I were lucky enough to get seats two rows behind the Nuggets bench when they came and played Portland in December. We were ragging on them pretty much the whole game — asking Birdman why he jelled his hair and suggesting that he shave, telling Dahntae Jones to please sit down because we couldn’t see and standing wouldn’t make Karl put him back in the game anyway, telling Melo that Anthony Carter just said that the refs were snitching and he should do something about it. No “you suck!”, no profanity, no personal attacks…though security would have loved that, because they were hovering and looking for an excuse to kick us out. Not wanting a repeat of Malice I guess.

By the end of the game it was clear that we had had an effect. Jones and Birdman were staring us down every time they got the chance. Renaldo Balkman turned around and made an anatomical suggestion that is highly BE-inappropriate, but some key letters of the words involved were “s,” “mf”, and “d”. After we asked Dahntae to sit, the whole Nuggets bench stood to spite us. Half the fans in our section were aghast (the boring rich people, if you ask me) and the other half were dying of laughter and telling us to come back anytime (the cool rich people!).

The Blazers won that game, which capped off an amazing night. But if the Nuggets were getting visibly worked up about our heckling, then that was focus and energy that they WEREN’T putting into beating the Blazers. I’m not condoning heckling in all instances or in all forms. We didn’t say and would never have said anything about Coby Karl’s medical situation or the traffic accident that killed JR Smith’s friend for a couple of examples. But when done well and respectful not to cross into the territory of beyond the pale, I think it’s a fun part of being a fan and can have a positive effect for the team you’re supporting.

   I’ve attended Blazer games since I was a kid. I don’t go to heckle. I don’t go to boo refs, or “get on” players. I go to watch the game, I go to offer support and cheer.

   To me game attendance is a group activity. I think as a group, a crowd, can help a home team with enerygy and motivation and sometimes affect outcome. Plus it’s shared energy….it’s fun.

   “Fans” are free to boo refs, or heckle opponents or even Blazers….But I’d also imagine most of it simply is ignored and should be ignored. I think most “hecklers” aren’t as clever as they think they are…and I’d also think that if you are heckling to the point where you are having an impact on the players…you’re probably annoying a lot of people around you.

  Maybe some of it, or a lot of it is up bringing…and I don’t mean to sound elitist. But growing up I went to Blazer games with my dad. And he wasn’t a big heckler…we went to watch the game…study the game…and support The Blazers….through cheering…

   Occasionally, my dad would comment that he thought a ref had made a horrible call or was doing a bad job….but he just wasn’t the “heckler” or stand up and tirade against the Zebra’s type.

   In most cases I don’t think it matters much. Unless you are being so intrusive or using language that is offensive to those around you, heckle away…I just don’t think it really matters that much. Pro Players hear it all…all season long…for season after season. In fact, I’ve seen players motivated by Boo’s or Negativity as strongly as players motivated by cheers of the home crowd. So it’s a fine line anyway, but how many times have you seen an opposing player hit a crucial 3 pter and then shoot a look at someone sitting courtside…so the "I’m helping the Home Team by Heckling:…can backfire….

But the way things are going over there, this may be what their next practice looks like.

About how he affected the other team, and probably won the game for his squad. And while sometimes it might even be true, hecklers can’t possibly do as much as they think – they play no defense and score no points.

I’m surprised I haven’t seen the word Sportsmanship mentioned at all. I don’t think it only applies to players and coaches but to fans as well. If anyone had to go to work everyday knowing that sitting 10 feet away there’d be a couple of hecklers constantly taunting them, most people would probably quit (and a couple might even sue). But NBA players have to accept it as part of the job. But fans don’t.

When I get the lucky chance to go to a blazers game once or twice a year, I’m there to cheer on the blazers – not rag on a defenseless player who can’t say anything back without getting fined a year of my salary.

We asked the owner and organization for a team with class and we got it. So we owe it to them to have class as well.

“HEY! You see this group of guys that you loathe and ridicule? YOU CAN’T HAVE THEIR AUTOGRAPH!”

Nice to see some passion and honest expression.

The Buffalo fans can heckle Bills players, while coach Chan Gailey can react however he pleases in that case.

As a boy, I heard some real artistes @ Candlestick in SF. They had remarkably loud voices, and were highly creative. They never used profanity, but they’d get under the skin of oversensitive players. I remember one guy saying something innocuous to Dave Kingman, and Kingman just exploded—charging the stands. Ah, it was a thing of beauty.