I know that when it comes to sports that everybody plays to win, and those that come to watch want to see their team win. But we should play in such a way that will allow us to do so. The same goes for those of us that are spectators. I recently encountered a situation at a basketball game where there were two adult spectators for the other team who where just loud and disrespectful to the refs to the point that it was a distraction to others trying to watch the game. At the end of the game I jokingly said to my group sitting with me, ” I think I want to meet those ladies.” Now I didn’t even specify by name nor was I looking in their direction, but when I turned around there stood a lady glaring at me. I was totally caught off guard by her behavior.  She followed up by saying  “those ladies are my daughters, would you like me to introduce them to you?”. How in the world did she know I was referring to her daughters. She knew because it was obvious due to the way they carried on through two ball games in a “Christian” environment. I tried to deescalate the situation by walking down to meet her daughters but changed my mind half way there. It came to that the mother was about to attempt to instigate an altercation. The next thing I know, one of the daughters is tapping me on the shoulders. I turned around and the lady says, “I heard you wanted to meet me.” I responded  “you ladies really have a great competitive spirit.” We went on to talk about where she played college ball, and I thought that was the end of it, but she came back saying that her mother had told her that I was making fun of them. At that moment, I had to start ignoring them., They went on for thirty minutes trying to pull me into a fight with them, but I refused to bite. My son said that he would have had to respond,  and I told him that it’s not worth it because people expect them to behave like that, because that’s what they do, but if we were to respond and match their behavior we would be frowned upon because that’s not who we are. Our reputation can not afford to be involved. We have too much to lose.

Rhon Johnson

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The rules are not just for those of us on the court but those of us in the stands as well

Rhon Johnson (1966 –      )