New York Post hits new low with Gamblero headline

It is so incredible, so despicable, so insensitive, but then again, it is the New York Post.

On its article about the death of Jeffrey Gamblero, the Post headline writer penned, "Nets Nut Dies" with a subhead, "Fake leg fan takes final leap." A man who helped enrich the lives of thousands, who died a painful --and yes, ignominious-- death is dismissed as simply a "Nets Nut." Compare it to the sensitive manner in which Andrew Keh of the Times and Mike Mazzeo of ESPN New York treated Jeffrey Gamblero.

The article of course was also in error.  Its lead, which could have been written by an MSG public relations person, states:

"The Nets super fan who was carried out of Madison Square Garden by security guards after allegedly bashing people with his prosthetic leg died Sunday after jumping out of a second story window in Queens, sources said."

As anyone who read the coverage of the incident at MSG knows, the "bashing" did not happen.  It was something a Garden security "source" put out, but something numerous eyewitnesses said it never happened. None of the videos recorded that evening and circulated on YouTube and elsewhere show it.  The Garden's own press release on Gamblero never mentioned it. In other words, it's bad journalism topped with a grossly insensitive headline.

To be fair, the story was not written out of the sports section but "cityside." which handles New York news. Fred Kerber and Tim Bontemps are decent human beings whose work we greatly respect. They had nothing to do with it.  Whoever did will have to live with his or her own insensitivity.  Unfortunately, so will his family and friends.