But, other countries' fans are MUCH more likely to boo the U.S. National Anthem. At a World Cup qualifying game between the U.S. and Mexico in Los Angeles a few years ago, the Anthem was booed by the majority Mexico-rooting crowd. It's even worse when games are played in Mexico City.

I give most American sports fans credit for treating sports guests and their national anthems with respect. Of course there are exceptions (for example, imagine if France's national anything team had come here to play a sport in the last 5 years. It would be ugly). And it only takes a few hundred morons to boo loudly enough for it to be heard. But it is the exception, not the rule. The same can't be said for many of our friends south of the border.

Why play national anthems at all during domestic sporting events? It's ridiculous! International contests deserve to have some recognition, but playing the anthem before a regular sporting event is simply meaningless. I have attended sports contests in many parts of the world and the United States is the only country that insists on this preposterous tradition for domestic games. Enough already!

Dallas DOES tend to have largely clueless sports fans, but there may be a defense here. You may not have heard the fans because TNT's fan audio was weird all night.

A couple of times along the way (at the start of the third period, coming back from timeouts late in the halves), I noticed that the audio from the TNT broadcast included very little crowd noise, despite the apparent mayhem (flashing lights, people dancing, arena displays going crazy, etc.) in the arena. At the start of the third period, it sounded like Stockton and Miller were there by themselves, even though the wide shots of players walking onto the floor clearly showed the fans totally ramped up. After a few seconds, the crowd noise cut on, but it was uneven for the next 30 seconds or so.

Throughout the rest of the game, I'd periodically notice that the crowd noise was turned WAY down at times when shots of the crowd showed them going wild. Having been at AAC for several playoff victories that weren't nearly as entertaining as this one, I can't imagine that the place wasn't roaring pretty much throughout the entire overtime.

I'm guessing King is reacting to TNT's audio problems, not Dallas' fans. But as I said at the beginning, maybe not.

You left out one important item in the recent history of the relationship between Rasheed Wallace and Cleveland Cavaliers fans: on February 26 of this year, to quote the CBS.sportsline.com story I just googled, Wallace "split open Zydrunas Ilgauskas' head with an elbow during Detroit's 90-78 home win." The penalty? Rasheed was fined $5,000 by the NBA. Since $5,000 means next to nothing to a player making multi-millions per year, Rasheed essentially got away scott free despite committing a truly thuggish act.

With this important fact added to the context, I think the scales of boorish behavior remain tipped heavily toward Rasheed Wallace, not the Cavs fans. Maybe Mother Teresa or Gandhi wouldn't have cheered, but us less-saintly folks can be excused, I think, if we let loose a little when a punk like Wallace tweaks his ankle.

"I spent the early part of my journalism career trying to get the word "suck" into a headline at a major metropolitan daily newspaper. I failed, but then again that newspaper has for all intents and purposes ceased to exist and I'm still here typing away. Suck suck suck."

I enjoyed this. Indisputably the funniest paragraph in the column.

Thanks.

"A little uncouthness is perfectly fine and plenty of fun. . . . But somewhere along that spectrum there's a line over which the fun and games have stopped"

And fortunately for us all, King is here to tell us just where this line is. So let that be a lesson to you--while "incivility" and "uncouthness" are safe in the hands of prosfessionals (i.e., smarmy columnists), the rest of you cattle clearly don't know how to use them properly and should just give it up.

It really sucks the way King does what columnists do, only better than most. I really hate the way he's informed and witty and willing to admit when he's wrong. And the thing I hate the most is the way I have no choice about reading him. Even now, his armed thugs are upstairs getting fresh coffee and going pee. I have only seconds before they return and force me to read still more King, to be subjected further to his clever ignominy.

Oh, despair.

Rasheed Wallace is a first class jerk who got what was coming to him. He flagrantly fouled Z earlier in the season,causing 8 stiches to Z. He then blatantly disrespected the Cav's by predicting victory on the Cavs home floor, then noting that the "sun shines on a dog's ass" some nights when his team lost to a hustling but outmanned Cav's team. So for rasheed, the nicest thing anyone in Cleveland could do is cheer his injury. He is a blight on the NBA, which is saying something.

Reggie Miller was anti-Cav's the whole night - F' him too.

King--did you mean to say that cheering, not booing, an opponent's injury is on the wrong side of the right-wrong divide?

Not only does he play for the same team, but he's about as close as they come in his attitude towards his opponents, fans, and the press.

I think the opposing fans would cheer for any R Wallace injury short of a spinal...

Where is Robert Parish when we need him?

More credit should be given to Raja Bell for clotheslining Kobe (although it was pretty weak by 70s/80s standards) and getting the previously milquetoast Suns to step up and kick Laker a$$.

Booing injured athletes is indefensible because it's antithetical to the spirit of the game. I love my favorite basketball team because I love the game of basketball, and I love the game of basketball because I treasure the virtues required to play the game well--strength, agility, sportsmanship, competition, teamwork, intellect, and others. If I'm offended because I feel that a player doesn't embody these virtues, I want him to be humbled while he's playing the game--not while he's on the sidelines with an injury.

Someone might try arguing that Rasheed sustained his injury because he couldn't defend someone who was playing the game better than he was. But I don't think this argument works, because similar injuries have occured to more likable players like Dwyane Wade.

I think Cavs fans would be perfectly justified in booing Rasheed for his behavior toward Ilgauskaus, if they're reasonably certain that Rasheed's action was intentional. But booing him when he's injured simply debases the fans' collective character, and aren't they booing Rasheed because they object to his level of character?