Basketball and football are too distant and loud. Tennis and
golf are too civil and elegant. But volleyball is indeed a
heckler’s paradise.
Sitting courtside while the Bruins were getting swept by
Hawai’i on Saturday night, there wasn’t much to smile
about. Then Paul George showed up in Game 3.
George, a redshirt sophomore on the men’s volleyball team
who wasn’t suited up for Saturday’s match, sat in the
first row of the student section and seemed to have more of an
impact on the game than some of the Bruins who were actually
playing.
As the Warriors’ lanky Maulia La Barre went to serve,
George warned him: “Hey, skinny ankles. Don’t jump. You
might blow away in the breeze. Protein shakes.”
Granted, La Barre didn’t stare down at his ankles or run
to the snack bar before flubbing a serve. He probably
wouldn’t admit to being affected by George’s playful
verbal abuse.
But George is a qualified authority to speak on how heckling can
get under a player’s skin.
“If you’re playing, you’re so caught up in the
moment and hopefully you’re focused enough to mostly tune it
out,” George said. “It’s the one random comment
that hits you.
“You can say that it’s either really funny or
stupid, but it’s automatically in your head.”
Last year, after the Bruins defeated BYU at home, a group of
Cougar players complimented George and his friends for being such a
vocal presence.
During a women’s volleyball game against Oregon last year,
the Ducks weren’t quite so appreciative of their
verbiage.
Hounded by a flurry of quacking sounds and the shouting of
“Aflac” all night, a frustrated Ducks middle blocker
turned and chucked a volleyball toward the hecklers after the
match.
“Volleyball is the most mental game ever,” George
said. “It’s full of motivation and momentum. When
you’re that guy getting heckled and you hit the ball and get
blocked, and then get blocked again, you’ve lost all your
steam.”
On Saturday, George’s heckles didn’t seem to slow
Hawai’i down. Nonetheless, the fans who came out were treated
to a comedy hour every time he opened his mouth.
“Hey Rainbow Warriors,” he called out. “Are
you going to march in the parade, too?”
Some fans might get offended. Others may get a good laugh out of
it. The important thing is that George’s prodding is in good
taste. When he referred to Warrior setter Daniel Rasay, a
long-haired Hawaii native, as Mowgli, and told him to get a hug
from his big bear Baloo, there was no serious implication that
Rasay came straight from the movie “The Jungle
Book.”
“You don’t want to demean someone where you attack
them as person,” George said. “It’s getting it in
their head where you want to make an impact for your
team.”
Still, there’s a fine line of what’s in good taste.
Vulgarity and personal insults are off-limit areas, and not just
because they don’t have any redeeming humorous value.
Appearance-related references, however, are trickier. George
described how last year, a UCLA women’s volleyball player was
personally offended by chants of “celluloid” and
“rolls” during a road match.
The chide provided a few good laughs to the hometown fans, but
it’s easy to see how it wouldn’t be interpreted as
innocently by the person at the butt of the joke.
It’s not necessarily as simple as being more careful when
heckling at women’s sports. Some athletes are just more
sensitive than others and it’s usually impossible to tell
what really irks them. And what peeves athletes the most is likely
what throws them off their game, making it all the more tempting to
taunt them in a particular way.
I’m not quite sure where that fine line is and maybe
that’s because I feel a tinge of guilt when laughing at
certain fat jokes. For the most part, if a heckler is clever or
subtle in making appearance-related remarks (i.e. Mowgli and the
Jungle Book), athletes shouldn’t take personal offense.
These quips are part of the home-court advantage that every
athlete will benefit from and be afflicted by at some point. Let
the fans have some fun in expressing themselves.
Olympic sports like volleyball could use some more support. And
if fans feel free to playfully interact with opponents,
there’s a better chance they’ll get it.
E-mail Finley at afinley@media.ucla.edu if you wish
cross-country meets had hecklers. Or fans for that matter.