If you're a typical Jazz fan, you are probably cheering your broken heart out for Houston to upset the Lakers in today's playoff game. Already you've seen too much Pau Gasol, too much Kobe Bryant.
It's enough to send people into a frenzy. In fact, it has already. The Jazz crowd is considered by the Lakers to be the most vicious in the NBA. Whether that's the byproduct of crowd noise or something much more insidious depends on whom you're asking.
Yet strange as it may seem, the crowds at the Staples Center and EnergySolutions arenas are identical, at least in one way: Both used exactly the same chant in the playoffs. You know the one. La-kers ----! La-kers ----!" or "U-tah -----! U-tah -----!"
The same chant Utah and Houston fans used on each other during the playoffs the previous two years.
Same chant I've heard in Dallas, Chicago and Portland, but also in Fort Collins, Laramie, Albuquerque and other places.
All of which makes it confusing why the Jazz crowd is quickly becoming known as the worst in the NBA, but it is. One contributor to Bleacherreport.com called Jazz fans the worst in sports.
Kevin Ding of the Orange County Register, last month, quoted Bryant saying "a bunch of people in the crowd want to kill you" and Lamar Odom added the Jazz crowd is filled with people who "hate your guts."
The headline said, "Lakers brace for ugly Utah fans."
That's Utah, all right. Rude, crude and ignorant.
Just wondering: How did things go for the Lakers in their games in Houston?
I'm guessing the same as they did in Utah.
The Jazz crowd is no worse than elsewhere. It's just that it's managed to get publicity for some incredibly offensive incidents the past few years. In the 2007 playoffs, Golden State's Stephen Jackson accused the ESA crowd of screaming racial slurs, though none of the Jazz players heard it. And Jackson's brushes with the law don't exactly lend credibility.
Why scream taunts that are an insult to your own players, too?
But later it occurred to me that if you get 20,000 people together, there will be a few idiots. So it could have happened.
Last year, L.A.'s Derek Fisher reportedly heard Jazz fans scream "Cancer!" in reference to his daughter's eye condition. One fan was caught on a phone camera covering his eye, appearing to mock Fisher.
I saw the picture. It looked incredibly bad. If that's what he was doing with his hand over his eye, they should have jailed him on charges of being a jerk. Still, I never heard anyone chanting "Cancer!" which means it was probably just a few fools, not the entire crowd.
I've seen incredibly bad behavior many places, not just Utah. I've heard Karl Malone called an "Uncle Tom." I don't have to describe the sort of taunts – including crude signs – that followed John Starks to the playoffs in Dallas after he had a testicle surgically removed.
At Colorado State, a fan came down the stairs at Moby Gym to yell religious slurs punctuated with obscenities at then-coach Roger Reid. During the Ladell Andersen era, a large portion of the Wyoming crowd chanted "(expletive) you, BYU!" repeatedly. It's also where a Utah assistant football coach's mother got punched in the face at a football game.
Reggie Minton, who is African-American, said he often heard racial remarks around the WAC when he was coaching at Air Force. At Utah State, toilet paper and a milkshake were tossed on the floor during one basketball game, and a Boise State player slipped on the mess, tearing cartilage in his knee.
I've heard Jazz, BYU, USU and Ute players called "(expletive) Mormons!" several places around the country — even when they weren't LDS.
BYU players say they have had beer poured on them by Utah football fans. A Salt Lake sports writer got hit in the face by a metal ingot thrown from the stands at BYU's Marriott Center.
A fan beneath the basket at UTEP dropped her pants to distract a BYU player from making a free throw.
Classless, crude, hurtful and sometimes even dangerous behavior.
But fact is, fans are the same, unless their team is so bad it doesn't matter.
There's always someone who takes it too far.
The NBA and NFL have written codes of conduct that are posted and announced at every game. They expressly forbid "disruptive behavior" and "foul or abusive language" and obscene gestures.
So all that needs to be done is to enforce such measures, right?
Throw the bums out.
Except that a few ushers and security people can't watch 20,000 basketball fans or 60,000 football fans at once.
The only way to avoid the problem is personal restraint.
I know, it's a kooky idea. But what a concept.
e-mail: rock@desnews.com