Celtics announcer doused by angry fan’s drink
You’d throw a drink all over his head as soon as your team lost a heart-breaker at the buzzer, that’s what. And the security, apparently backing you rather than the announcer who wouldn’t move out of your damn way, would do absolutely nothing about it.
Just ask WEEI’s Sean Grande and the crazed fan who spent the entire night trying to get Grande to sit his ass down. (Boston Globe)
Grande stood for the entire game and a female fan sitting above Grande claimed she could not see the action on the east side of the court clearly. The fan complained to security and arena officials to no avail and screamed repeatedly at Grande to sit down. Grande refused. Arena officials approached Grande during the broadcast and he had a conversation with an official while calling the game.
A companion of the fan then started screaming expletives at Grande and said he hoped he could be heard on air. The female fan followed by yelling to Grande, “Who do you think you are?’’
After Pierce hit his winning shot, Grande sat down and the female fan doused him with a drink. Grande did not respond and remained on the air. Security did not admonish the fan.
While I’d need more details to make an informed opinion, I still have some thoughts. The way I’m leaning is that Grande was a douchebag. Why couldn’t he have just sat down and called the game? Everyone else was sitting down (well, the fans who showed up, at least). You’re telling me he couldn’t have done the same thing, and still seen the game?
You could say his own view could have been impeded by something when he was sitting down, but the security guards’ response was telling. A fan berates an announcer all game long, and then pours a drink on his head, and the security guards do NOTHING? Absolutely nothing? They must have had some serious sympathy for this chick.
Whatever you think about Grande, he still wrote one of my favorite KG pieces ever. And he also continued to announce the game, with no breaks, while getting a drink poured on his head. Impressive, regardless of how big a douche he was.
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Celtics Blog | Jay King | April 24, 2010
There wasn’t much they could do at the end of the game – not like they could toss her out. And if she didn’t have season tickets, there was no other consequence they could impose besides tossing her.
Regardless of his behavior, throwing objects is inappropriate and a violation of the rules. If they had an effective way to punish her, they should have. Somebody being a jerk doesn’t justify throwing stuff at them.
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But they could have punished her for screaming expletives at him all game long. They could have escorted her out after she dumped a drink on his head. They could have done a lot of things to stop her behavior, and didn’t.
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