Sports Guy on Celtics fans

[Josh Ozersky <josh_ozersky@yahoo.com>]

Here's the honest truth.  It's from the Sports Guy's
column on the worst fans, which is one of the funniest
things I've read in months.  (especially his take on
Yankees fans).


12) CELTICS FANS
We're directing this solely at everyone who attended
home games at the Fleet Center last year (the worst
sports crowd I've ever been around on a daily basis).
The fans' treatment of Antoine Walker over the second
half of the season -- after he was making a concerted
effort to improve his game and play selfless
basketball -- was reprehensible. It really was. If you
don't like the Celtics or the players, that's fine.
Just don't go to the damned games. Seems pretty
simple, doesn't it?

Honestly, I can't believe how much Celtics fans have
changed over the years. In the old days, the crowd
possessed an instinctive collective sense on how to
affect games -- they always rallied the team when it
needed a boost; they always knew the difference
between a Standing O and a "Cheering throughout an
entire timeout because the team was just that freaking
great" Standing O"; and they harrassed opposing
players like nobody else in the country (remember how
the Garden crowd singlehandedly removed Ralph Sampson
from Game 6 of the '86 Finals?).

Now? The stands are filled with three types of people:

--1. Businessmen asking questions like "Where's Dee
Brown? Did we trade him or something?"

--2. People spending four quarters giggling at the
Crunch & Munch Guy and trying to get on the Jumbotron
during timeouts.

--3. Ted Sarandis-types beaming because the team is
floundering, which means they can grumble about Cyber
Twan. 

As amazing as this sounds, the Celtics were actually
at a disadvantage at home this season. Here was a
young team playing an aborted 50-game season -- with
four new players in the rotation, no less -- and
people were treating them like they were only as good
as their last jumper. Young teams feed off energy,
positive and negative, and the Fleet Center just
seemed to drain these guys over the course of the
season. Make no mistake about it -- the damage was
done. After seeing the way the fans treated Antoine,
do you really think Ron Mercer and Paul Pierce want to
spend the rest of their careers here in front of a
bunch of fair-weather fans?

That's why I hated going to Celtics games this year.
It's pretty sad when you're watching the crowds in
Sacramento and Philly and muttering to yourself, "I
wish our games were like that."

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