Re: Heckler paid a visit by Walker and friends

[Tammo29@xxxxxxx]

You know, I'm really surprised I haven't seen much written about his
incident.
Am I the only one that thinks Antoine was way out of line here?

Here are excerpts from the Globe along with my observations in (  )......

The fan, identified as Stewart Berg, heckled Walker for most of the evening,
imploring coach Jim O'Brien to substitute another player for him.

(Nothing wrong with that.  Certainly you'd prefer not to have your own
players heckled, but if you can heckle the opponent without being tossed you
can't very well throw people out for heckling their own.  That would be a
double standard). 

 O'Brien removed his All-Star forward with 4 minutes 42 seconds to play and
the Celtics trailing by 24 points. At that point, Walker moved toward Berg,
who was sitting to the right of the Celtics' bench, to confront him.

( The way I read this, Walker went straight from the court and confronted the
guy in his seat.  That's a no-no.)

Celtics security director Phil Lynch quickly intervened, at which point
Walker said to Lynch, ''Let me go. Don't touch me. Don't touch me again.'' 

( Doesn't sound like Walker called Lynch over to me.  Sounds very much like
Lynch went over to stop Walker from attacking the guy and Walker didn't
appreciate it at all.)

Reached on his cellphone last night, Berg was asked if Walker touched him.
''Yes, in the face,'' said Berg, who indicated he was not hurt.

(Another no-no.  I'd be surprised if the league office doesn't at least look
into this.)

Berg was removed by security personnel, but not before five of Walker's
friends left their loge seats and charged toward him, issuing verbal threats
of their own.

( By this time security was already handling the situation.  There was no
reason for Walkers friends to leave their seats.  It only made a bad
situation worse and could have led to something extremely ugly.)

Walker's friends were restrained by Lynch, and no punches were thrown, but
the scene served as a hideous off-the-court ending to a hideous on-the-court
performance. The incident was a culmination of a cauldron of frustration
bubbling over in the FleetCenter, as the Celtics fell to a 3-0 deficit in the
best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series. For the third straight
game, Walker struggled mightily against his nemesis, Kenyon Martin, and
picked up another technical for jawing with Martin as the two were waiting
for a jump ball. Walker endured his share of boos and negative comments
throughout his 15-point, 15-rebound night, which saw him shoot a horrid 6 of
17 from the floor, but it was a fan that Walker said was ''very familiar to
me'' who caused him to lose his cool.

Asked if he was upset that his tickets would be revoked, Berg told the Globe,
''What can I do? I need to protect myself. I was attacked by a player on the
bench.'' Berg defended his right to criticize Walker's performance.
''Absolutely [I have the right to be critical],'' he said. ''I did not do
anything out of line. I did not say any bad words. I did not physically
attack him, he physically attacked me.''  Berg called the Celtics' flagship
station, 1510 The Zone, to defend his actions following the game.

(I didn't hear Berg's phone call as I was watching the post game show on FSNE
and the interviews on NBA TV.  But I did catch the radio show later when the
host was talking about the phone call.  According to him, Berg said he was
telling Walker that Martin was eating him up, something I'm sure Antoine was
very aware of already.  He admitted that he is not a fan of Walkers and never
has been.  But he was adamant that he was never vulgar or threatening and
that Walker came into the stands after him, not the other way around.
There is only one way this should have been handled.  If Antoine was having a
problem with the guy he should have called in security.  That is what they
are there for after all.  No way do you ever take matters into your own hands
and you certainly don't ever have your posse do it for you.  I'm amazed that
fans can go after other fans and instead of being escorted  out of the
building they are told to go back to their seats.  That's just wrong.)

TAM