Jazz fans no nastier than others

If you're a typical Jazz fan, you are probably cheering your broken heart out for Houston to upset the Lakers in today's playoff game. Already you've seen too much Pau Gasol, too much Kobe Bryant.

It's enough to send people into a frenzy. In fact, it has already. The Jazz crowd is considered by the Lakers to be the most vicious in the NBA. Whether that's the byproduct of crowd noise or something much more insidious depends on whom you're asking.

Yet strange as it may seem, the crowds at the Staples Center and EnergySolutions arenas are identical, at least in one way: Both used exactly the same chant in the playoffs. You know the one. La-kers ----! La-kers ----!" or "U-tah -----! U-tah -----!"

The same chant Utah and Houston fans used on each other during the playoffs the previous two years.

Same chant I've heard in Dallas, Chicago and Portland, but also in Fort Collins, Laramie, Albuquerque and other places.

All of which makes it confusing why the Jazz crowd is quickly becoming known as the worst in the NBA, but it is. One contributor to Bleacherreport.com called Jazz fans the worst in sports.

Kevin Ding of the Orange County Register, last month, quoted Bryant saying "a bunch of people in the crowd want to kill you" and Lamar Odom added the Jazz crowd is filled with people who "hate your guts."

The headline said, "Lakers brace for ugly Utah fans."

That's Utah, all right. Rude, crude and ignorant.

Just wondering: How did things go for the Lakers in their games in Houston?

I'm guessing the same as they did in Utah.

The Jazz crowd is no worse than elsewhere. It's just that it's managed to get publicity for some incredibly offensive incidents the past few years. In the 2007 playoffs, Golden State's Stephen Jackson accused the ESA crowd of screaming racial slurs, though none of the Jazz players heard it. And Jackson's brushes with the law don't exactly lend credibility.

Why scream taunts that are an insult to your own players, too?

But later it occurred to me that if you get 20,000 people together, there will be a few idiots. So it could have happened.

Last year, L.A.'s Derek Fisher reportedly heard Jazz fans scream "Cancer!" in reference to his daughter's eye condition. One fan was caught on a phone camera covering his eye, appearing to mock Fisher.