Serena Williams Heckler (Non-Basketball)

[Damien]

[QUOTE=truerookie]

Originally Posted by Damien

I understand that. However, there were others around the HECKLER who heard his comments. They evern pointed him out to the administrator. This is why I stated what I stated, as well as, you stated what you stated.

Actually if we want to get technical here, the article states: "Fans and security confirmed a man heckled Williams inappropriately, tournament director Adam Barrett said."

No where in this article does it say that this guy actually used racial comments. With the way the media is today, if the guy did use racial comments, you can bet those people who actually heard it would be trying to have their face plastered all over ESPN or Fox Sports or SPEEDtv or NFL Network or Golf Channel or whatever channel they could get their face on. If the guy said anything 'racially offensive' to her, shame on him. Same thing allegedly happened to her father in 2001 where someone "said" something racial that no-one confirmed and now both sisters refuse to play in that tournament because of how the situation was handled, or wasn't handled.

If the guy was just heckling her or tell her he thought she sucked or was lazy or didn't know how to play Tennis, there's not crime in that. Fans in every other sport do that, and I've never seen anyone get the boot for telling an athlete they didn't know how to play (i.e. they suck).

So to Serena, yes - they do do that on a professional level - in every other sport (Basketball, Baseball, Football, NASCAR, Hockey, Soccer...hell I'm sure they even do it in Cycling).

Would you throw a fan out of a game after that person told you that you sucked or you were lazy or didn't know the rules? Probably not. Would you throw a fan out of a game after that person made a racial slur? Probably, but I bet more than one person would have been able to tell you exactly what the fan said.