Jermaine O'Neal Will Not Suffer Crappy Hecklers

The New Orleans Times-Picayune handed a blog over to a fan, and said fan (David Schexnaydre Jr.) uses the platform to tell the story of the night he heckled Toronto center centre Jermaine O'Neal. First, a taste of the heckle offered:

I decided to start yelling, "Jermaaaiiinnne!" at Jermaine O'Neal. He didn't respond initially but when I started talking about how he's making 21 million dollars this season and only had 5 rebounds to this point, he glanced at me. When we made eye contact I yelled, "You're garbage, Jermaine! You should be ashamed, stealing all that money!"

And after a half-hour of that, the pay-off:

During a David West free throw with only a few second left, we start again, "Jermaaaiiinnne! Jermaaaiiinnne!" And that's when Jermaine O'Neal, multi-million dollar NBA Superstar, looks over at us and in an attempt to intimidate us angrily says, "Shut up!" Everyone around us erupts into laughter. Fans: 1, Jermaine O'Neal: 0.

I'd check the score again, bud. It sounds like J.O. got the last word. Considering the lack of originality or cause in the heckles, maybe the score is "Fans: 0, Jermaine O'Neal: -1." The wonderful amazement that a multi-millionaire might deign to respond angrily toward someone that had screamed insults at him unprovoked for a sustained period is time, it's so weird. Only in sports are grown men expected to ignore the people screaming at them about how much they suck.

We need a new "Cut that meat!" commercial with J.O. showing up at Schexnaydre's day job telling him how awful his stapling form looks. "I can't believe you make $26,000 a year and you can't beat Minesweeper in less than 60 seconds! BOOOO!"

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.