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Heckler who used racial slur towards ex-Knick Mutombo is banned for 1 year
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islesfan
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10/31/2006  1:19 AM
Heckler banned for season after alleged racial slur


The NBA and the Orlando Magic on Monday banned for the season the fan whose alleged racial slur incited Houston Rockets center Dikembe Mutombo at a preseason game last week.

Season-ticket holder Hooman Hamzehloui allegedly called Mutombo a "monkey" Thursday in the third quarter of the Rockets-Magic game. Mutombo yelled back at Hamzehloui and gestured from the court.

Hamzehloui was ejected from the game. The league said Hamzehloui is also barred from attending games at any NBA arena this season. Orlando said it will refund his season-ticket payment.

"I will not say that I am happy about it," Mutombo told Fox 26 in Houston. "It is out of my hands. I have done my job. I have forgiven him. Whatever the commissioner and the league does, that's not my area."

According to a report in the Orlando Sentinel, Hamzehloui sent the Rockets center a letter of apology. Hamzehloui was contacted late Sunday by the newspaper and said he didn't know "using the word 'monkey' was bad."

"I would like to take a moment of your time to offer a complete and unconditional apology for my poor behavior, and in particular, my poor choice of words last Thursday night while attending the Houston-Orlando basketball game," the letter reads.

"I am by no means a racist, and if you only knew me better you would never begin to have those thoughts. What I am guilty of is poor judgment in the use of words while doing what I do to many of the visiting team's players, 'heckle them.'"

Mutombo said after the game he would go into the stands next time even if he got fined for it.

NBA spokesman Tim Frank said no action was taken against Mutombo and the matter was closed.

Hamzehloui also wrote that he would not attend another Magic game until Mutombo gives the team his approval and that he would donate $5,000 to a charity of Mutombo's choice.

Hamzehloui also wrote that he wished to apologize in person.

"That meant a lot to me," Mutombo told Fox 26 of the apology letter, but added that Hamzehloui's offer to personally apologize was not necessary. "I don't need that."

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I completely agree with the NBA here. It's great to see them take this seriously and ban the person for his vile racist remarks.

Pay attention rvhoss, your kind isn't welcome.
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BlueSeats
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10/31/2006  1:55 AM
Aside from the problematic comments at cause, it would seem well handled by all parties.
nyk4ever
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10/31/2006  2:14 AM
What an idiot that guy was, I'm glad he won't be able to use his season tickets for a team like the Magic that are going to have a huge year with a energetic young team.

By the way, how do they ban you from all NBA arenas? I don't understand, it's not like people checking tickets even know who he is in Orlando, much less Miami.
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Rich
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10/31/2006  3:14 AM
Posted by nyk4ever:

What an idiot that guy was, I'm glad he won't be able to use his season tickets for a team like the Magic that are going to have a huge year with a energetic young team.

By the way, how do they ban you from all NBA arenas? I don't understand, it's not like people checking tickets even know who he is in Orlando, much less Miami.

They flag you, like Brentano's does when a book has been taken into a bathroom.
rvhoss
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10/31/2006  7:39 AM
"I would like to take a moment of your time to offer a complete and unconditional apology for my poor behavior, and in particular, my poor choice of words last Thursday night while attending the ultimatesKnicks.com basketball site," the letter reads.
"I am by no means a racist, and if you only knew me better you would never begin to have those thoughts. What I am guilty of is poor judgment in the use of words while doing what I do to many of the sites fat stupid loser no friends living in their mother's basement internet muscle having fat twinkie eating fat stupid dope haters, 'make fun of them.'"

I had no idea calling your fat loser face a twinkie eater was wrong...had I known I would have said something about your mother you dope.

so, I apologize you fat dope.

no...I take my apology back.

fatty.
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fishmike
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10/31/2006  7:54 AM
I cant believe you still post here
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Solace
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10/31/2006  9:01 AM
If he violates the ban, can he be arrested?

Also, props to the NBA for taking initiative and taking care of the situation. That behavior is unacceptable.
Wishing everyone well. I enjoyed posting here for a while, but as I matured I realized this forum isn't for me. We all evolve. Thanks for the memories everyone.
TheGame
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10/31/2006  9:56 AM
The behavior is really unacceptable. People get on players and expect them to act professionally and like role models 24/7, and yet these fans come the games and act like total lunatics. The whole thing in Detroit was caused by one fan deciding that his ticket purchase authorized him to through a beer at a player. I don't know about you, but if someone throws a beer at me, I would probably go after them like Artest did (not saying Artest was right b/c he was not, but the situation was caused by a fan). Some things you just don't do. The NBA really needs to control these idiots that think just because they buy a ticket they have the right to unleash their frustrations on the players. Honestly, I think some of this stems from a conscious or unconscious jealousy that a black player is making more money than the white fan, who then feels it is his job in life to make it as difficult as possible for the black player. I am not saying that is always the case, but I think that is the underlying reason more often than people are willing to acknowledge.
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Bippity10
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10/31/2006  9:58 AM
Posted by TheGame:

The behavior is really unacceptable. People get on players and expect them to act professionally and like role models 24/7, and yet these fans come the games and act like total lunatics. The whole thing in Detroit was caused by one fan deciding that his ticket purchase authorized him to through a beer at a player. I don't know about you, but if someone throws a beer at me, I would probably go after them like Artest did (not saying Artest was right b/c he was not, but the situation was caused by a fan). Some things you just don't do. The NBA really needs to control these idiots that think just because they buy a ticket they have the right to unleash their frustrations on the players. Honestly, I think some of this stems from a conscious or unconscious jealousy that a black player is making more money than the white fan, who then feels it is his job in life to make it as difficult as possible for the black player. I am not saying that is always the case, but I think that is the underlying reason more often than people are willing to acknowledge.

Let's not get this started. If you are going to go into the stands and attack a guy who threw a beer on you, at least attack the right guy, not some random fan. At some point maturity should kick in. Fighting to defend yourself is one thing, fighting to prove a point is lunacy and is usually the method of the unhappy.
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Killa4luv
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10/31/2006  10:46 AM
Posted by rvhoss:

"I would like to take a moment of your time to offer a complete and unconditional apology for my poor behavior, and in particular, my poor choice of words last Thursday night while attending the ultimatesKnicks.com basketball site," the letter reads.
"I am by no means a racist, and if you only knew me better you would never begin to have those thoughts. What I am guilty of is poor judgment in the use of words while doing what I do to many of the sites fat stupid loser no friends living in their mother's basement internet muscle having fat twinkie eating fat stupid dope haters, 'make fun of them.'"

I had no idea calling your fat loser face a twinkie eater was wrong...had I known I would have said something about your mother you dope.

so, I apologize you fat dope.

no...I take my apology back.

fatty.

No but really, you called him a twinkie eater and Isles is claiming this was a racist remark?
Sounds more like a anti-gay slur, but I never even heard of it before.
Killa4luv
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10/31/2006  10:48 AM
Posted by Bippity10:

Let's not get this started. If you are going to go into the stands and attack a guy who threw a beer on you, at least attack the right guy, not some random fan. At some point maturity should kick in. Fighting to defend yourself is one thing, fighting to prove a point is lunacy and is usually the method of the unhappy.
Don't know if I agree with that. But in any case, how do you feel about the war in Iraq?
Bippity10
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10/31/2006  11:10 AM
What does Artest running into the stands and attacking the first random fan have to do with the Iraq war?
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TheGame
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10/31/2006  11:11 AM
Posted by Bippity10:
Posted by TheGame:

The behavior is really unacceptable. People get on players and expect them to act professionally and like role models 24/7, and yet these fans come the games and act like total lunatics. The whole thing in Detroit was caused by one fan deciding that his ticket purchase authorized him to through a beer at a player. I don't know about you, but if someone throws a beer at me, I would probably go after them like Artest did (not saying Artest was right b/c he was not, but the situation was caused by a fan). Some things you just don't do. The NBA really needs to control these idiots that think just because they buy a ticket they have the right to unleash their frustrations on the players. Honestly, I think some of this stems from a conscious or unconscious jealousy that a black player is making more money than the white fan, who then feels it is his job in life to make it as difficult as possible for the black player. I am not saying that is always the case, but I think that is the underlying reason more often than people are willing to acknowledge.

Let's not get this started. If you are going to go into the stands and attack a guy who threw a beer on you, at least attack the right guy, not some random fan. At some point maturity should kick in. Fighting to defend yourself is one thing, fighting to prove a point is lunacy and is usually the method of the unhappy.

I am not trying to defend Artest because he was wrong, but my point is that it is time we start holding these fans accountable for their behavior. It is not okay to go to a game and starting making personal attacks on players race or their family. You can berate a player but somethings are off-limits and anyone with sense would know this. I posed the question whether these attacks happen, which typically occur between a white fan and a black player, because of conscious or unconscious racism or jealousy that these black players are making more than the white fans. It seems to me that is the reason more often than people care to acknowledge, but since this is a basketball forum, and not a race relations forum, I will leave it at that.
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Bippity10
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10/31/2006  11:23 AM
I agree with your premise but I would leave the Artest thing out of it. We have no idea what motivated the guy to throw a beer on Artest. IT could have been racism, jealousy, stupidity, a guy thinking he's helping the Pistons or a guy that simply hates Artest. Although we can all agree taht racism is evident everywhere we must take each situation seperately. We can't assume racism for everything, lest we become hypocrites. NOw the Mutombo case was pretty obvious and insensitive remark and the fan deserved what he got. But Artest got a beer thrown on him. We don't know the reasons. He then compounded the problem by not confronting the fan that actually threw the beer on him, but instead lumped all fans in the same category and attacked the first fan he saw. He used fan jealousy and racism to attack a fan that had nothing to do with the incident. Now this particular fan could have been a member of the KKK or a champion for race relations. We don't know. We do know he got attacked for something he had nothing to do with. If some guy calls Mutombo a monkey and he then comes into the stands and shoots me in the face I would think this was wrong. No? Or did I deserve it because some other fans are racist. In this context I think Artest should be left out completely.

[Edited by - bippity10 on 10-31-2006 11:26 AM]
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islesfan
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10/31/2006  11:28 AM
Posted by Killa4luv:
Posted by rvhoss:

"I would like to take a moment of your time to offer a complete and unconditional apology for my poor behavior, and in particular, my poor choice of words last Thursday night while attending the ultimatesKnicks.com basketball site," the letter reads.
"I am by no means a racist, and if you only knew me better you would never begin to have those thoughts. What I am guilty of is poor judgment in the use of words while doing what I do to many of the sites fat stupid loser no friends living in their mother's basement internet muscle having fat twinkie eating fat stupid dope haters, 'make fun of them.'"

I had no idea calling your fat loser face a twinkie eater was wrong...had I known I would have said something about your mother you dope.

so, I apologize you fat dope.

no...I take my apology back.

fatty.

No but really, you called him a twinkie eater and Isles is claiming this was a racist remark?
Sounds more like a anti-gay slur, but I never even heard of it before.

No, actually he put up a picture attempting to ridicule my ethnicity.

Would you be cool with someone doing that to you Killa?
If it didn’t work in Phoenix with Nash and Stoutamire... it’s just not a winning formula. It’s an entertaining formula, but not a winning one. - Derek Harper talking about D'Antoni's System
Bippity10
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10/31/2006  11:29 AM
Let's just agree on one thing. Fans need to be accountable for their actions and players need to let security take care of things. In this case Mutombo confronted the fan and now the fan got a fair punishment and everyone handled the situation properly. Now let's say Mutombo charged into the stands and attacked the fan, what is the end result? Someone gets hurt? Lawsuits? Loss of money for Mutombo even though the guy kind of deserved a smack. Sometimes you have to fight, sometiems throwing a punch seems like a great thing but gets you no where.
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arkrud
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10/31/2006  4:56 PM
Let’s imagine this.
Black fan on the Ranger hockey game spitting the bear on... Jagr... and made racial comments (I don’t really know which comments are usually used for whites – like eurotrash, etc.)
Hm...
I think there are less painful ways to do a suicide...
And my point is the players will never manage to do anything because… fans are closer to the guy. Guy will be ripped in peaces.
So where were the other fans in Detroit and in Matumbo case?
A am not saying that all fans (black or white) would come over and punch the guy but at least use their bear on him... and tell him that he is f..n Nazi and moron.
The racism is bad but our ignorance is even bigger problem





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crzymdups
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10/31/2006  5:51 PM
Posted by islesfan:
Posted by Killa4luv:
Posted by rvhoss:

"I would like to take a moment of your time to offer a complete and unconditional apology for my poor behavior, and in particular, my poor choice of words last Thursday night while attending the ultimatesKnicks.com basketball site," the letter reads.
"I am by no means a racist, and if you only knew me better you would never begin to have those thoughts. What I am guilty of is poor judgment in the use of words while doing what I do to many of the sites fat stupid loser no friends living in their mother's basement internet muscle having fat twinkie eating fat stupid dope haters, 'make fun of them.'"

I had no idea calling your fat loser face a twinkie eater was wrong...had I known I would have said something about your mother you dope.

so, I apologize you fat dope.

no...I take my apology back.

fatty.

No but really, you called him a twinkie eater and Isles is claiming this was a racist remark?
Sounds more like a anti-gay slur, but I never even heard of it before.

No, actually he put up a picture attempting to ridicule my ethnicity.

Would you be cool with someone doing that to you Killa?

seriously? we should institute the same policy the NBA does then.
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nyk4ever
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10/31/2006  6:00 PM
Posted by crzymdups:


seriously? we should institute the same policy the NBA does then.

I agree.
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tomverve
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10/31/2006  6:04 PM
Posted by islesfan:

No, actually he put up a picture attempting to ridicule my ethnicity.


It was a picture of a fat asian kid. I mean, if that's racist, then surely UK's monthly "Eddy Curry as Fat Albert" posts are equally racist. Poor taste is involved all around, but racism seems like a stretch...
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