I’ve got some thoughts on Joe DeRosa and his bush-league stunt yesterday night.

First off, he’s an NBA referee reffing a playoff game. You have to expect the crowd to be rowdy, and some boos to come down after bad calls. Secondly, the refs were pretty atrocious both ways. Fucking awful. And the calls slightly favored the Celtics, the road team. Do you actually think the Orlando fans are going to be silent? Should they even be silent? No, and no. The fans are obviously going to be loud, and they should be. Part of homecourt advantage is that the home crowd influences calls ever so slightly.

So DeRosa throws the ball at some heckling fan (who just happens to be the CEO of Wyndham Hotels) and, when the guy throws the ball back at him, DeRosa kicked him out. What was the guy supposed to do, keep the ball? Give it to somebody else to hand back to DeRosa? Autograph it and give it back?

The whole situation was absurd. Don’t throw the ball at a heckler and don’t throw the heckler out when he throws it right back at you. Hell, it was DeRosa who should have been kicked out.