When Deron Williams' face collided with Shane Battier's shoulder on Monday night, it was a sickening and scary sight. Especially when Williams stayed down on the court for so long. A loud, exciting playoff atmosphere suddenly went silent out of concern for an athlete. Then some bozo yelled, "Get up you little girl!" Nice. Classless. Cowardly. Gutless. A short time later, I got a post here from another bozo, saying, ha-ha, wasn't that hilarious? In a word, no. Let me repeat: Classless. Cowardly. Gutless. There is no reason -- ever -- to cheer when an opposing athlete is injured. Just imagine the reaction you might have had if Yao Ming's broken leg had occurred on the road and even one fan in that arena had stood and cheered. One of the things that always made me feel the most proud about being a Houstonian (transplanted) back in 1994 and 1995 was the way this town celebrated back-to-back championships by the Rockets. With nothing but joy and a sense of community. When Houston won it's first ever major professional championships in those years, there were no riots like the ones that have occurred in other cities. There were no videos beamed coast-to-coast of burning cars or windows broken out of downtown storefronts. I can still remember the gridlock out on the streets in the early morning hours. Horns honking, smiling fans giving each other the No. 1 sign, hugging, dancing. No fighting. No ugliness. Houston showed the nation who we are and how to celebrate. Now the Rockets are guaranteed to play at least another game at the Toyota Center this season -- either Game 5 against the Jazz or in the next series against Golden State or Dallas. Houston fans should make the home-court advantage as one-sided as possible. Boo the other guys. Be loud, be rowdy, be deafening. Make the opposing players unable to hear themselves communicate or even think. Just don't cheer injuries. Ever. You and I know, we're better than that. ------------ My response to Franny: Cheering or ridiculing an injury should never, ever be done in any circumstance. Classless? Cowardly? Gutless? Definitely. But that also describes you, doesn't it, Fran?
Agree with him 100%. You never cheer when someone is hurt in a sporting event! Act with some class, this is a game after all.
I definitely agree to that too. We need to show people that Houston is better than that. I just think Fran is being a little hypocritical. If you've read his stuff, you should be well aware of how rude and base he is to everyone.
Of course I never want to see players get hurt, especially a good guy like Deron. But I really don't feel like getting lectured at by a columnist who has nothing but contempt for his readers.
There is a person in every arena that would say this about almost every injury. There's no reason to call your entire city out over what some idiot that is NOT unique to this city says or does.
I always hated that cheering for a team to sustain an injury. If my team can't beat the other team at its best, it doesn't deserve to win. I want to know the Rockets can whoop anyone on any night with all their players in tip top condition.
I remember at the game, it seemed like someone in the upper bowl started "Utah sucks" chant when Deron was down. It was pretty classless. It wasn't just one or two clowns chanting, a lot of people started chanting. I just shook my head in disbelief. We had a couple Utah fans near us, and they were good sports the whole time, but that made them upset. I don't blame them. I was ashamed of our city for a while there. At least we all clapped when he got up, but still...that was pretty stupid to start chants during that time. Way to go whoever started that crap.
It's a good Blog because we need to remind ourselves to continue to be better people... However true with SirCharlesFan...an idiot at the stadium does not drown out all the good fans there...
But I think the fans there in large showed class. I heard applauses when DW finally stood up on his own. Wasn't it the case? SI
Definitely. Houston fans are not like that at all. We ARE a classy city. I was really just trying to point out Fran's hypocrisy. Didn't mean to preach to the choir.
All in all we are. And yes, we all started clapping when he got up, it was just a good full section of people that started chanting Utah Sucks (as I posted above) that are the shame.
Nah, #$%* that. Williams wasn't hurt. He was trying to buy sympathy from the refs. He didn't come out of the game. He didn't even sit on the bench during the timeout. His whole team is filled with floppers, fakers, and actors - he's no different. I'd never root for anyone to get hurt and I'd never heckle anyone who actually was hurt. But if a guy doesn't even need to sit down, he can't be hurt all that much. The Jazz are all drama queens. Let's not forget that Blinebury ran Greg Swindell out of town with a bunch of fat jokes. He wouldn't know the first thing about class.
