Raptors Admonish Fans

Toronto Raptor forward Jerome Williams called the booing of the Canadian national anthem by Detroit Piston fans “sad.”

Before Sunday’s Game 1 of the first-round playoff series, the capacity crowd at the Palace of Auburn Hills booed “O Canada” from beginning to end.

“That was something I wouldn’t have expected from a city like Detroit. It was disheartening,” Williams, a former Piston, said after Monday’s practice. “It was a total lack of respect.”

The display came on the day funerals began for the four Canadian soldiers killed when an American F-16 mistakenly bombed Canadian troops in Afghanistan.

“In dealing with what everybody’s been through, it’s hard to understand why they would do something like that,” Toronto’s Antonio Davis said. “It was stupidity on their part, so we’ll let them deal with it.”

Some Raptors said the team was the intended target of the wrath.

“I think they were more booing the Raptors than they were booing Canada,” Raptor Coach Lenny Wilkens said. “The mob is easily led.”

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Marv Albert will skip tonight’s Utah Jazz-Sacramento King game on TBS and Thursday night’s Trail Blazer-Laker game on TNT.

Albert is recuperating from injuries he suffered after the limousine he and fellow Turner and NBC announcer Mike Fratello were riding in hit a stalled truck Thursday. Albert will be replaced on those telecasts by Mike Breen.