Friday, December 23, 2016
If At First You Don't Get Punished, Trip, Trip Again
Grayson Allen vaulted himself into second place on the most-hated Duke players list (no one will ever top Christian Laettner) by trip Elon's Steven Santa Ana.
What's worse, Allen threw a fit on the bench after being pulled from the game, seemingly acted as if his trip/kick to the back of the knee was warranted because Santa had grabbed his arm.
He also didn't seem to remember that this is the third time in his brief career that he has done something like this.
After the first two, Allen received nothing more than a reprimand from the conference and some excuses from his coach, which I objected to.
Now arrogant Coach K is once again behaving indignantly, saying that the discipline is between him and the player.
Infractions need to be met with consequences or they become habits. That is what has happened here and I think will continue to happen, as I would be shocked if Allen was suspended for more than 3 games, because Duke's 4th game from now is against a good Florida State team, and the game after that is against an even better Louisville squad.
Note: the reaction that Allen is getting has nothing to do with his color. He's an asshole, a jerk, a dirty player and if color plays a role at all it's because people perceive that a black player engaged in similar misbehavior would have punished far more severely, a long time ago.
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I actually think Coach K handled the situation perfectly. I think a suspension of 3-4 games is absolutely fair for this type of unacceptable and inexcusable behavior, and I'd say that if it were a UNC or KY player, too. Anyone arguing for a season long or even a month's long suspension is enormously overreaching.
I agree that the strong public reaction to Allen's tripping incidents is not because of his race, as he has clearly brought this on himself by behaving hugely inappropriately and dickishly. That said, the media love to hate on Duke's successful players, and in particular their white ones, whether they are truly villainous or not. Grayson Allen did nothing even remotely out of bounds in 2015 - he just played lights out in the national championship game and won Duke a title - and he was immediately branded as the next (white) Duke player to hate.
Either way as a Duke grad and fan, I am rooting for Allen to change his ways and focus on getting this team to the Final 4.
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