January 7, 2009 9:00 am  |  26 Comments

New Jersey Nets to Fans: Please Stop Booing Us


by Marcel Mutoni

All told, the Nets (17-18) are having themselves a decent season. They’re certainly doing better than most critics had anticipated, including yours truly.

Which is why they have a hard time understanding the negativity, especially from their own fans.

NetsDaily brings us the story of booing Nets fans and their effect on the team’s psyche:

With three minutes left in the third quarter of Monday night’s game vs. the Kings, Keyon Dooling stole the ball from Kevin Martin near halfcourt and was immediately fouled by Martin. Dooling went to the line for two shots on the clear path violation. After he missed the first, one in a series of missed free throws by the Nets, a cascade of boo’s rained down on the Nets’ guard. Dooling made a motion with his hands as if to say, “bring it on” while mimicking the crowd’s boos. After making the second and then quickly hitting a three, Dooling turned to the crowd as he ran down the court and sarcastically mouthed the word “boo!”

He was asked, Is it that bad? Dooling responded: “I played for the Clippers, and it was never like this,” he said, a testament to just how bad he thinks things are.

It’s a fascinating look inside the thinking on a young team, as Dooling acknowledges.

Fans pay a lot of money to watch NBA games in person, and they’re certainly well within their right to boo the players. It would behoove the paying customers in Jersey, however, to tone down the abuse, lest they want their own players to start sobbing at the free throw line.

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This story is filed under: NBA, The Wire, Top News

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  • TADOne Posted: Jan.7 at 9:02 am
    Wipe the tears with a $100 dollar bill, Keyon. No one feels bad.

  • Hursty Posted: Jan.7 at 9:02 am
    Um… LOL. The fans pay the money, they can do whatever the fu*ck they want as far as I’m concerned, especially since the team won’t exist in a few years time anyways.

  • Hursty Posted: Jan.7 at 9:07 am
    Bring Glen Davis on down! He’d have a fine old time with the Jersey kids.
    Oh, and I love the stab that Keyon has at the Clippers.
    At least people turn up to their (the Nets) games regularly enough to CARE to boo.

  • riggs Posted: Jan.7 at 9:24 am
    cause u have to make your damn freethrows, just ask josh boone, dude got booed like crazy for all of his misses (yet Yi got cheered for making his)

  • Fleezy Posted: Jan.7 at 9:44 am
    HA! @TADOne

  • Jufu Posted: Jan.7 at 10:49 am
    okay if you pay money to watch your favorite team play in person, you really shouldn’t be a dick and boo them. i’m the biggest nets fan there is, and would give near anything for what those fans have. so all of you who think fans can boo their team should just suck a dick ’cause the nets are doing well too.

  • ciolkstar Posted: Jan.7 at 11:11 am
    I get the fact that the fans pay to see a game and can damn sure “boo” if they please. But it doesn’t help anything, players know that they are supposed to hit FTs. A collective groan after a bad sequence/quarter/game/week is one thing, but actively booing is sot of wack, IMO. Then again, I’m from San Antonio and we haven’t had much to boo about in recent years.

  • Harlem_World Posted: Jan.7 at 11:11 am
    It’s not going to make players want to stick around if they ever do get better. Plus the only booing that is going to amount to anything is to call out the GM’s or coaches. This is a players league.

  • G8RS Posted: Jan.7 at 11:43 am
    I like Dooling’s reference to the Clips fans, they would never boo no matter how bad it gets. True story. Nets fans should give Nets a break. Keep it up Devin, lookin’ good out there.

  • Wiz Posted: Jan.7 at 1:00 pm
    thereb boo-ing because they want chris douglas-roberts on the floor thats all keyon dont take it personal

  • TADOne Posted: Jan.7 at 1:17 pm
    Where the heck has CDR been? Is he hurt? He needs burn.

  • Jukai Posted: Jan.7 at 1:34 pm
    Yes, TADOne, he has been hurt, if by “hurt” you mean “not playing good”

  • Josh D Posted: Jan.7 at 1:51 pm
    Things must be really bad up in NJ not even the Clippers fans boo their own team, and when the Clips are better off than you in any way, you know you’re in trouble

  • JoeMaMa Posted: Jan.7 at 2:36 pm
    New Jersey is exceeding expectations.
    But if Tony and Paulie don’t like what they’re seeing, they’ll boo.
    Dooling’s new shoes will be Air Cements if he keeps that up.

  • Ed The Sports Fan Posted: Jan.7 at 2:57 pm
    The Nets must’ve forgetten what the Derrick Coleman/Kenny Anderson/Drazen Petrovic era was like… -Ed.
    http://www.edthesportsfan.com

  • Fresh Posted: Jan.7 at 3:08 pm
    honestly who cares tell me these guys havnt been booed before. im pretty sure they get booed sometimes in on the road. I mean high school and college u havent been booed. just some babies some over grown, rich ass babies

  • G-O Posted: Jan.7 at 4:42 pm
    Maybe the fans know that the nets play better on the road so they wanted to create an away game atmosphere but idk if the nets won

  • Gerard Himself Posted: Jan.7 at 5:16 pm
    about the Kings game: Josh Boone hustled and played good D too, so do people really think it helps him at the line being booed by his home crowd? People are idiots. They were also booing the Nets in the third quarter while they were coming back against Sacramento. I mean - when a team is actually playing good, does the booing make any sense? Apparently to some of you it does, but I wish I could even attend some Nets games to see my favorite team play, I wouldn’t boo them, for sure. It’s not like they only won 5 games this season, they have the most potent backcourt in the NBA, a promising rookie and great role players in Dooling and Hayes. Sure, they are frustrating sometimes, but I just really don’t “get” the fans. They pay a lot of money to see good basketball, and when the team finally wakes up and actually IS playing good, they will still boo. It’s time to move, Bruce Ratner.

  • Russ Bengtson Posted: Jan.7 at 5:33 pm
    Are they sure it’s not canned booing?

  • BETCATS Posted: Jan.7 at 6:31 pm
    “Fans pay a lot of money to watch NBA games in person” Last time i checked the Nets were giving tickets away FOR FREE

  • Teddy-the-Bear Posted: Jan.7 at 6:52 pm
    @ riggs: That’s because Yi is your daddy.

  • Moose Posted: Jan.7 at 8:04 pm
    Nets fans to the Nets: “Give us a record that isn’t worth booing, and we won’t do it.” I don’t agree with what they’re doing, though.

  • tapion786 Posted: Jan.7 at 9:54 pm
    being a Nets season ticket holder, i don’t agree with the booing at home. but a team with a record 5 games over .500 on the road and 5 games under .500 at home… i think the booing is something the nets inherently need to get going. and the nets did win this game.

  • chintao Posted: Jan.7 at 11:01 pm
    From the story, it sounds like Keyon Dooling answered the boos with his play. What’s the deal with all the posters piling-on about players being babies? I just gained new respect for Mr. Dooling.

  • Joel O's Posted: Jan.8 at 2:26 pm
    It’s not like anyone had grand expectations of this Nets team, too. They’re actually doing better than anyone would’ve expected. Devin Harris, VC, Lopez and even Yi have been playing well. Lots of nice young talent too. I don’t get it. It’s not like they’re the Raps, who got us all poised to thinking they would be a top-four team in the East but have tumbled so bad it’s not even worth elaborating.

  • Benoit Posted: Jan.14 at 4:40 pm
    I agree 100% with Joel O’s.
    I know this story is a little bit older. But c’mon. Have you seen the Raptors roster and the Nets roster?
    New Jersey Nets fans don’t get it. They boo they’re team and many of them would also like to see coach Frank to go. Are you KIDDING me?

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