THE HECKLER

-by TS Newshound

May 19, 2010– Well, I guess it doesn’t matter who you are or how much you paid for your seat– if you heckle a ref during an NBA game you can get yourself in trouble.

It seems there was a kerfuffle between a ref and a fan during halftime at a recent NBA playoff game in Orlando. Have you heard about it?

Veteran referee Joe DeRosa was being heckled hard by a fan sitting behind the scorer’s table at midcourt and DeRosa got his knickers in a twist about it. He approached the fan and threw a basketball at him. The fan caught it just before it would have hit him in the face, immediately tossed it back at the referee and continued shouting at him.

The whole incident took only a few seconds, really, but apparently DeRosa thought it was a really big deal. He called security and had the fan removed to another seat.

The fan? None other than Wyndham Vacation Ownership CEO Franz Hanning. Yeah, that Franz Hanning.

Here’s a video of the incident, in case you want to see it. Sure wish we could hear what was being said.

Hanning isn’t exactly talking, but he did issue a brief statement via email wherein he said, “As many people in Orlando know, I am a huge fan of NBA basketball, and especially my home team, the Orlando Magic. I think the NBA officials do a great job. I’m looking forward to the Magic going to Boston and evening up the series.” Snore.

Meanwhile, the newspapers across the land can’t get enough of the incident. My favorite so far? Charles Pierce at Boston.com, who wrote: “Were I the board of directors of Wyndham Vacation Ownership, I might want to inquire what, if anything, and how much of it, my CEO had ingested prior to making a public jackass of himself on national television and, subsequently, all over the international Intertoobz.”

Sorry, I just can’t stop laughing.

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