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Here's a list of other memorable and infamous exchanges between fans and sports figures:
MARCH 2007
Albany Patroons head coach Micheal Ray Richardson directs alleged anti-gay and anti-semitic remarks to hecklers during a Continental Basketball Association playoff game. The former NBA player was suspended for the team's last two playoff games and had his contract cancelled.
In a newspaper interview the previous week, Richardson had made more anti-semitic remarks.
"I've got big-time Jew lawyers," Richardson told the Albany Times Union. "I don't think there's nothing wrong with it. If you look in most professional sports, they're run by Jewish people. If you look at a lot of most successful corporations and stuff, more businesses, they're run by Jewish (people). It's not a knock, but they are some crafty people.
"I am not anti-Semitic. I was giving compliments. It's like saying the NBA is 85 percent black."
Serena Williams says a heckler bothered her throughout her match at the Sony Ericsson Open, making at least one racist remark before he was finally ejected.
"The guy said: 'Hit the net like any Negro would.' I was shocked," Williams said after she won her third-round match against Lucie Safarova 6-3, 6-4. "I couldn't believe it. I had to do a double take. I think I hit a double fault on that point. "I shouldn't have let it bother me because growing up in Compton we had drive-bys," said Williams, who was raised in Los Angeles.
SEPTEMBER 2006
Winnipeg Goldeyes fan Bryan Benson, who calls himself a "random heckler," was physically removed from his seat by police after he refused ushers' attempts to get him to sit somewhere else. Benson said he was merely booing the home team, not being unruly. Goldeyes GM Andrew Collier said Benson was ejected -- not for heckling Winnipeg players -- but for being belligerent, obnoxious and scaring children.
AUGUST 2006
Canadian tennis player Daniel Nestor pulled no punches after a group of pro-Croatian fans chided him during a match against Tim Berdych at the Rogers Cup in Toronto. The unsupportive fans yelled out: "Hey Daniel, your mom's here," followed by "time to go home."
The next day Nestor slammed the hecklers in the Toronto Sun:
"It's a little bit surprising when you're playing on your home court in Canada and they're against you. I'm always a little surprised when people are that patriotic in another country. They came to Canada to live here. My first choice, when I'm cheering for sports, is Canada.
"I'm Canadian, even though I was born in another country. Sort of disturbing when you see guys that are that into their native land when they're living in Canada, you know. But that's life."
JANUARY 2006
New York Knicks' forward Antonio Davis rushed into the stands to confront a fan who was involved in a verbal altercation with his wife, Kendra, at a Knicks-Bulls game at the United Center. He received a five-game suspension.
Davis explained his rationale for entering the stands: "I didn't want to stand there helpless and not react." When asked if he would do it again, he said yes.
APRIL 2005
New York Yankees outfielder Gary Sheffield was fielding a ball in the right field corner of Fenway Park, when a Red Sox fan leaned over and swung his right arm, clipping Sheffield in the mouth. Sheffield turned and pushed the fan away, threw the ball in and then turned and raced back to the fence. An alert Fenway security guard got in between Sheffield and the chirping fans.
DECEMBER 2004
Denver Broncos' quarterback Jake Plummer raised a middle finger at hecklers during the a 20-17 win over the Miami Dolphins.
Latrell Sprewell was suspended for one game by the NBA for yelling a sexual vulgarity at a female fan during a game. Sprewell responded to a female heckler with a sexually-vulgar term that was clearly picked up by a courtside microphone and broadcast by television stations KTLA in Los Angeles and KSTC in Minnesota.
NOVEMBER 2004
A brawl erupts between members of the Pacers and Detroit Pistons' fans at an NBA game at the Palace. NBA bad boys Ron Artest and Stephen Jackson bolted into the stands and fought with fans after beer and debris was tossed at the players. Later, fans who came onto the court were punched in the face by Artest and teammate Jermaine O'Neal.
In the aftermath, nine players from the teams were banned for a combined 143 games, including Artest, who became the first player to be suspended for an entire season for a fight during a game.
SEPTEMBER 2004
Texas Rangers reliever Frank Francisco threw a chair at a fan in a game against the Athletics in Oakland. The chair hit one man in the head, then bounced and clobbered a woman in the side of the head on her left temple. The Rangers sprinted out of their dugout with two outs in the top of the ninth and reliever Doug Brocail could be seen screaming at a male fan. Brocail had to be restrained by his teammates and bullpen coach Mark Connor, and others also had to be held back. Security ran to the scene and a small section of fans was cleared from their seats. The incident caused a 19-minute delay.
AUGUST 2004
Brazilian runner Vanderlei de Lima was just three miles from winning the Olympic marathon in Athens when he was attacked and knocked into the crowd by a defrocked Irish priest. De Lima was able to get up and win the bronze, despite the unprovoked attack of Cornelius Horan.
MARCH 2004
Davis Love III missed a crucial par putt that squared his contest with Tiger Woods during the Match Play Championship, due to a heckler who let out a "Whoop!" just before Love attempted the shot on the 20th hole. The same fan had previously yelled out, "No Love!" as the golfer stepped to his ball on the fifth tee. Afterwards Love sought out the fan and said, "We're not leaving until he's out of here." The fan was eventually removed, but Love lost the match.
SEPTEMBER 2002
During a Royals-White Sox game at Comiskey Park, William Ligue Jr., 34, and his 15-year-old son raced out of the stands and attacked K.C.'s first base coach Tom Gamboa, kicking and punching him until players and coaches from both sides restored order.
MARCH 2001
Sitting in the penalty box at the Wachovia Center, Leafs' Tie Domi was being pelted with rubbish from the fans when 35-year-old Chris Falcone, seated behind the box, began jawing at him through the protective glass. When Domi responded by squirting water at him, the portly fan attempted to get at the player, causing the glass to give way andlanding him in the box. The two exchanged shots before security intervened.
MAY 2000
Pitcher Darren Dreifort and sluggers Gary Sheffield, Eric Karros, and Shawn Green are among the Dodgers suspended from three to eight games for going into the Wrigley Field stands after a Chicago Cubs fan allegedly struck the Dodgers' backup catcher, Chad Kreuter, and stole his hat.
FEBRUARY 1995
Fed up with a heckler in Portland, the Houston Rockets' Vernon Maxwell climbed into the stands and punched the loud-mouth fan.
JANUARY 1995
French soccer star Eric Cantona was dubbed 'the king of kung fu' after an altercation with a Crystal Palace fan at London's Selhurst Park. After receiving a red card, Cantona was barraged with obscenities, prompting the forward to leap over an advertising board and strike the heckler with a two-footed kick to the chest. Cantona was slapped with a nine-month worldwide ban from soccer and narrowly escaped serving time after a judge reduced an initial jail sentence of two weeks for common assault to 120 hours of community service.
APRIL 1993
Seles was playing Magdalena Maleeva in the quarter-finals of the Citizen Cup in Hamburg when a crazed fan, Gunter Parche, ran on the court and stabbed her. The knife just missed her spine, leaving a wound that was almost a foot deep.
DECEMBER 1979
During an on-ice scuffle between the Rangers and Bruins at Madison Square Garden, Boston's Stan Jonathan was sliced open by an object thrown from the stands while Terry O'Reilly was being menaced by a stick-wielding fan. Bruins players climbed into the stands and began scuffling with fans. Mike Milbury actually removed a fan's shoe and beat him with it.
APRIL 1976
Don Saleski was sitting in the Maple Leaf Gardens penalty box when a fan tried to take him on. There was no protective glass surrounding the box at the time and the entire Flyers team rushed to Saleski's aid, sparking a fracas that featured Joe Watson swatting a Toronto police officer over the shoulder with his stick.
1912
Ty Cobb makes Ron Artest look like a peace activist. In 1912, Cobb waded into the stands to pummel, spike and boot a heckler. "Don't kick him!" fans cried. "He has no hands!" The victim had lost all but two fingers in an industrial accident. "I don't care if he has no feet," snarled Cobb when informed of a suspension.
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