UPDATE: Florida State Director of Athletics Randy Spetman released a statement Saturday urging Florida State fans to stop inappropriate language and taunting cheers. He’s hoping Seminoles’ fans don’t become “THOSE kinds of fans,” caps for emphasis.
This is a fan at last night’s Florida State game. The Terps won 71-67. Greivis Vasquez, a proud native of Venezuela, recovered from a career-high nine-turnover effort at Clemson on Sunday for a nifty little 23-point, seven-assist, seven-rebound line.
By now, this picture has made the rounds on the blogosphere.
And if you haven’t yet seen it, Vasquez’s postgame reaction is attracting some attention:
The fans here were crazy, the craziest I’ve ever had since N.C. State. They were being racist, they were talking about deporting me and sending me back home, calling me Mexican when I’m Venezuelan. It was pretty bad, so they deserved to lose. That’s why they lost. I showed up like I showed up, like I’m the best player on the court and they have to take it like that.
Of course, as Vasquez points out, this is not the first time he’s taken some fan abuse.
He’s also not the first player who’s had to deal with over-the-top antics on the road in the ACC. The fans in this conference are passionate, at times too passionate.
But Greivis hating is hardly identical to the hatred inspired by J.J. Redick or Tyler Hansbrough. There’s two distinctive elements.
For one, Vasquez is not American, which brings out the type of ridiculous displays such as last night’s sign.
Also, Vasquez has been at the center of some famous incidents in which he was “hated on” by his own fans. That’s the wild card that puts him above Redick in the most-hated category, at least in my unofficial rankings.
A few more Vasquez vs. Fans incidents after the jump.
DEC. 1, 2009 AT INDIANA:
The Terps beat the Hoosiers 80-68 in the Big 10-ACC Challenge. Vasquez had a pedestrian shooting night, going just 4-for-14 from the field, but he got to the free throw line 14 times and finished with game-high 23 points.
Indiana fans directed a vulgar chant at Vasquez as he was shooting free throws near the end of the game, according to the Indianapolis Star. It went something like, “Still a [expletive].”
That didn’t make Hoosiers’ coach Tom Crean happy:
MARCH 21, 2009 VS. MEMPHIS:
Vasquez had this one coming. After questioning the strength of No. 2 seed Memphis’ conference the day before the Terps’ second-round NCAA Tournament game against the Tigers, Vasquez and the Terps got dominated 89-70 by what was simply a vastly superior team.
With the game out of hand, Memphis fans started a sarcastic “ACC, ACC” chant. Vasquez finished with 18 points on 8-for-16 shooting.
The Memphis media (really just the Memphis Commerical-Appeal, which reads like an in-house operation of the Memphis Athletics Department) had a field day with Vasquez’s comments.
JAN 10, 2009 VS. GEORGIA TECH:
Perhaps the most famous Greivis hating incident: Vasquez told Terps’ fans – literally his own fans – in the student section at Comcast Center to “Shut the [expletive] up.”
Some student fans weren’t happy with the way Vasquez was playing, so they booed him and criticized his tendency to try to take over games.
If you’ve ever been in the student section at Comcast, you know the drill. This was hardly a new phenomenon when it happened.
I’d venture to say you won’t hear as much of it Sunday when the Terps host North Carolina.
Thanks to last year’s late-season run into the NCAA Tournament, most fans seem to realize just how important Vasquez is to the Terps, and how that translates into him taking the most shot attempts or trying those risky passes that sometimes end up in the other team’s hands.
You could write a book on why Vasquez inspires so much fan abuse. I won’t attempt to do so.
It could be the shimmy. For some reason, people don’t like to see emotional outbursts from their athletes. It doesn’t bother me, but for each his or her own.
It could be that he’s just the team’s best, most high-profile player, thus draws the most attention by default.
Or it could be for more heinous reasons, like whatever that Florida State fan with the sign was thinking.
Whatever it is, it’s a safe bet Vasquez won’t stop playing the way he has for almost four college seasons now. And that means the hating won’t stop.
Aaron Kraut is The Diamondback’s sports editor. He can be reached at akrautdbk@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter here.