NBA Playoffs 2013: Tony Parker Received Death Threat During Game 1
By Josh Hill
Sports fans are fanatic beings, but that sometimes boarders on psychosis. Thus was the case during Game 1 of the San Antonio Spurs Western Conference Finals matchup with the Memphis Grizzlies, as star point guard Tony Parker reportedly received death threats during the game that had to be handled by local police.
According to Paul Berry, spokesman for the the San Antonio Sheriff’s Office, someone called 911 during the Spurs game against the Grizzlies making a threat against Tony Parker’s life.
“We received a call from San Antonio Police that there was a potential threat against Mister Parker,” stated Berry, via NBC affiliate WIOA. ““We immediately increased security both inside the AT&T Center and outside the AT&T Center.”
It’s unfortunately common for players to receive death threats before and after games but rarely is someone backwards stupid enough to call in a threat during a game. Given the world we live in, where terrorism runs rampant and in the shadow of the Boston Marathon Bombings, people are on even higher alert than they already were when it comes to people wanting to cause harm to others during live events.
Most likely, the call came from a drunken gambler who was upset at losing money over the way Parker was tearing up the Grizzlies defense and leading the Spurs to a Game 1 win. But even if the threat was baseless and wasn’t going to go anywhere, police must work on the assumption that all threats are serious.
Death threats are the turds that the mouth breathers among sports fans leave on the jewels of the game we all love. They go into the category of the drum guy who takes a foul ball from a little kid or that loud fan who tries to start a fight when his team is losing. There’s no place in sports for it and people who dabble into the darker side of fandom best hang it up and get their kicks elsewhere.