Every time Todd Bertuzzi, now with the Calgary Flames, plays at the Pepsi Center, the reason he is booed is at least mentioned in print, in cyberspace and on the air. Some have argued it’s time to “get over it”; some believe it’s a disgrace that Bertuzzi is playing in the NHL at all, and thus believe there can be no such thing as excessive mention.
This is indisputable: The reason he is booed is brought up.
In contrast, during the NBA’s Western Conference finals, the few acknowledgments of the Denver fans’ booing of the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant tended to be cynically misleading and even insulting. Apparently, we were supposed to believe that this was a case of conventional focus on the opposing team’s superstar. It wasn’t.
The Bertuzzi and Bryant “cases” are not analogous but have enough commonality to be comparable.
After his 2004 assault on the Avalanche’s Steve Moore, Bertuzzi was charged with bodily assault causing injury. He pleaded guilty and received probation and a slap on the wrist. He missed a total of 20 regular-season and playoff games in an NHL suspension that stretched through a lockout. Moore hasn’t played since, and his lawsuit against Bertuzzi is pending in Ontario.
Avalanche fans, and many others, hold a grudge. When Avalanche fans vocalize that grudge, it’s pointed out that this is more than an instance of picking out an opposing player to hate. It isn’t just, say, getting on the Flames’ standout defenseman Dion Phaneuf because he’s dirty or on the Red Wings’ Pavel Datsyuk because he’s the best all-around player in the league.
When the Lakers played the Nuggets three times at the Pepsi Center last month, it seemed as if there were fine print on the back of the media credentials issued saying: a) the league couldn’t be sued if a member of the telecast crew suffered a broken nose when struck by a ball; b) no autograph requests permitted; and, c) no fair mentioning the sexual-assault charge complaint filed against Bryant in Colorado in 2003, plus the ensuing media circus, the ultimate dropping of the charges and an out-of-court settlement of a civil lawsuit.
Many believe Bryant did something heinous and bought his way out of trouble. That’s why they booed.
I didn’t monitor every second of the national broadcasts or read every word of the coverage. But it came off as if the media decided that it would be “insensitive” to put the boos of the league’s best player in proper context, especially amid the giddiness over what most assumed was the upcoming Kobe vs. LeBron confrontation in the Finals.
