In today's Warriors Notebook for the San Francisco Chronicle the topic of Mike Dunleavy getting booed on the home floor is touched upon. Regardless of whether the Warriors are winning or losing there always seem to be some very loud boos directed at Dunleavy. In the piece Jason Richardson revealed that the constant boos do indeed affect Dunleavy.
It's no secret that sports fans are loud. Professional athletes get booed all the time on their home floor if they aren't bringing it or not performing well. Players who aren't popular with fans will hear it in the worst way even when they just did something great (Exhibit A: Kobe Bryant getting booed at the All Star game in Philly a few years back when accepting the MVP trophy). It's not always fair, but it's part of the territory.
I was pretty surprised Dunleavy was seeing the boo-birds last night after his best performance of the season. I remember seeing Dunleavy swear at some fans who were booing him at the arena last season, but as far as I can tell from the TV cameras none of that was happening last night and the booing just wasn't very fair. Warrior fans are the most passionate, loyal, and intelligent fans in the NBA, so I'd be extremely hesitant to make some claim that the arena was just filled with some bums last night. This is the Bay Area. That's not our style.
This has to be somewhat of a PR disaster for the Warriors. Even when Dunleavy has a good game he's getting booed at home. No other Warrior player gets that kind of treatment. I don't want to romanticize this topic and make Dunleavy a hero here- he deserves criticism for his poor career and big talk, the Warriors have erred several times with their handling and marketing of him, and some in the local media have given him a relative pass for his lackluster career relative to other Bay Area athletes who see nonstop censure- but it's extremely odd how he gets those boos in the arena nonstop. The interesting discussion point isn't so much does he deserve these boos, but rather why does this happen?
Why do you think Mike Dunleavy gets booed so much at The Oracle Arena in front of the home crowd? Or do you think the booing level Dunleavy hears at home is just being sensationalized and overblown?