HECKLER'S VETO: As the world now knows, New Jersey Nets star Jason Kidd was taunted with chants of "wife beater" by fans at FleetCenter in Boston during Tuesday's Game 4 of the Nets-Celtics series. Kidd, of course, was arrested last year for assaulting his wife Joumana, and as a result was shipped out by his former team the Phoenix Suns. While I know the chants didn't come from any sense of moral indignation by the Celtics' fans (after all, they were merely trying to get under Kidd's skin), if the player had to face "wife beater" taunts at every arena in every city for the remainder of his career, I can't say I'd be too upset. But even more disturbing are the comments by Kidd's teammates (and coach Byron Scott) decrying the fans and more or less excusing Kidd's behavior. Teammate Kenyon Martin, himself a notorious thug, even went so far as to say that the arrest was a part of Kidd's "personal life" and thus "none of anyone's business"- a very '50s-like analysis that certainly doesn't deserve to go unchallenged. But even more ludicrous is that some (such as ESPN) have compared the Kidd hecklers with the fan at last night's Game 5 who heckled Paul Pierce about Pierce's summer 2000 stabbing in a nightclub. Clearly beating one's wife is not nearly on the same moral plane as getting stabbed- though I wouldn't expect Nets fans to know the difference.
Posted by Stephen Silver at May 30, 2002 06:53 PM