Knicks Fan Who Claims He Was Ejected For Heckling 'Melo is Suing MSG

A year ago, Knicks fan Anthony Rotondi claims he yelled "Carmelo, you stink!" at the only player on the Knicks it'd make sense to yell that at. For his observation, Rotondi claims he was kicked out of his seats by Madison Square Garden security before being "arrested and charged with Tampering with a Sports Contest in the Second Degree and Criminal Trespass in the Third Degree." All this according to a lawsuit Rotondi filed against MSG in the Supreme Court of the state of New York.

That same lawsuit also claims that the Knicks' home arena took it a step further and got in touch with ING Financial Services (Rotondi's employer for the past dozen years) to tell them that Rotondi was:

"Disorderly, used vulgar and abusive language at the game, refused to produce his ticket and was abusive with Garden security personnel."

Afterward, ING fired Rotondi, who was allegedly attending the game with both clients and a supervisor.

Rotondi's lawyer Eric Weissman contends that MSG was a "bully" who "unfairly targeted" his client.

In contrast, Madison Square Garden called the lawsuit "frivolous" (which was expected, after all they weren't going to say it "has merit") and also claimed to have reviewed video of the incident to back up that claim. Furthermore, a Garden spokesperson said:

"We do not welcome anyone into the building who behaves in an inappropriate and hostile manner, and those who behave that way are subject to ejection."

In addition, Howard Lorber, a Knicks season ticket holder for the past two decades, said he was only a couple of rows away from Rotondi and alerted security to his inappropriate behavior. Lorber said that Rotondi screamed "Carmelo, you suck!" for "several minutes." He also added that Rotondi added a "Fuck you, Carmelo!" for good measure (this added obscenity apparently caused 'Melo to look Rotondi's way).

If a 37-45 team pissed Rotondi off so much that he behaved in a way that Lorber said:

"I've never seen in 20 years someone heckle a Knicks player like that."

...then we can only wonder how this year's 5-32 squad would've had him conducting himself. Anyway, if this goes anywhere we'll be sure to let you know.

[via ESPN New York]

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