Dear Editor,

I was particularly taken aback when I read the article titled, “Coach K gets tripped up by star guard.”  I am usually very impressed with what comes out of the sports section, which is why I found this article surprisingly shallow and petty. 

Right off the bat, the author paints a picture of Grayson Allen, the 21-year-old shooting guard, as “barbaric,” and a “serial tripper” who “clearly has a problem.” 

The author goes on to make the argument that while it was right of Coach Krzyzewski to suspend Grayson Allen for his on-court antics, lifting the suspension after only one game leaves the winningest division 1 basketball coach of all time, looking weak.

It is articles like this that leave me disgusted with opinionated sports media.  Rather than examining the issue on a humanistic level, it simply turns Grayson Allen into an antagonistic caricature and turns a very complex decision between coach and player, mentor and mentee, into a simple matter of discipline, or as the author alludes to, a timeout.

What else would Grayson Allen be taught by sitting out more games, letting the biased sports media continue to speculate and condemn?  Getting back on the court is exactly where the young star needs to be.

He needs to learn to control his emotions and feeling those emotions on the court, is the only way he can change his reactions to them.  By portraying the decision by the esteemed coach as weak, only shows the lack of thought that was put into the article.

Coach K said in an interview regarding the suspension, “there are things that you all don’t see and shouldn’t see or shouldn’t be talked about, and they’re called teachings. You don’t need to teach out in the public all the time.”

Clearly this is a personal issue that the coach has gone to great measures to help his young player with, outside of the public eye.

It is so easy to watch a couple YouTube clips, read a couple of headlines, and right an article explaining how a major decision was weak, however, like most things in life, this is a complex issue that can really only be handled by the people closest to the problem. 

And to refer to the hall of fame coach as “spineless” as he sits in a hospital bed recovering from back surgery, talk about a low blow.

Sincerely,

Teddy Leinbach