Coach K feels for Gerald Henderson
March 6, 2007 at 12:21 pm | Posted in Basketball, Ed Geth | 8 CommentsFrom the monday press conference:
“>>>>Did the referees do a good job?
Yes (pause) I think they did a good job. There’s a lot going on in a short period of time – the blood, the crowd. I’m not blaming anybody, but it’s just unfortunate, and the person it’s most unfortunate for is ‘G’; because, that wasn’t his intent and that’s not what he was doing during that play. I believe that with all my heart, head, and whatever.”
As much as I want to call Gerald Henderson a thug, I don’t think a person’s actions over the course of two seconds is adequate to define their character. I have said and I do maintain that he engaged in a play without any regard for the safety of the players around him, and he has been justly punished for that.
That said, coach K, sir, I think maybe the person this is most unfortunate for is the person who got his nose broken.
Bottom line, Gerald Henderson is young. His career will be fine and his reputation will recover as long as he shows discipline and sportsmanship when he plays. It’s in his hands. Tyler’s nose will heal and he will barely skip a beat. If anyone is going to have trouble living this down, it will be coach K. But then, all he needs is an NBA coaching offer to remind everyone how great and sought after he is. We will have forgotten all about this until the next incident.
-Hepstyle
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Jackie Manuel's Posse 
Im with you on this one Hep.
File this incident under “when you encourage your team to be ‘tough’ and foul a lot (see McRoberts with his elbows to Tyler every time he had the ball) you’re going to incur some hard fouls that should not happen.”
It’s the atmosphere of Duke’s program, that winning more important than how you play the game that caused this kind of thing to happen.
In my head I can hear him yelling at his players after the game for *not* taking Tyler down if they just let him dunk that ball.
Has there been an apology from Henderson on this?
Comment by MOD— March 6, 2007 #
Henderson doesn’t seem interested in apologizing. I think that what I heard was that he said if he happens to cross paths with tyler he will apologize. And that’s part of what sticks in my craw about this. Neither K nor Henderson seem to think that anything particularly WRONG took place. Shades of Laettner’s chest stomp.
Comment by hepstyle— March 6, 2007 #
Pretty much said all I have to say on this. I think the suspension was fine. I think Coach K should have apologized and left it at that. His comments about Tyler being in the game were, at best, silly. I think that if I were on the other side I’d feel the same way most dookies do. I would expect a Carolina player to deny a Doookie from dunking at that point in the game, and that is what I think Henderson was trying to do.
Comment by jackiemanuel— March 6, 2007 #
I agree that a Carolina player could have done the same thing (I do think that K encourages this kind of thing)– but I know Roy would have handled it differently after the fact, showing more concern for the injured player. And Iguarantee you that the player would have apologized — not for intent any but for hurting the other player.
I find it reprehensible that Henderson has not publicly apologized. What kind of person would not do that, unless is telling him not to.
PS Jackie would you have you sig on gmail say something to the effect of “free Gerald”? Is that how you think UNC fans would have reacted?
Comment by MOD— March 6, 2007 #
I’m not a relativist…but yes I think if everything was reversed we’d be hearing the same defense from Tar Heels that Dookies are making and the same condemnation from Dookies that some Tar Heels are making.
Comment by jackiemanuel— March 6, 2007 #
Fans do what fans do. I don’t doubt that it if were the other way around that some crass heels fans would be celebrating the spilled blood of our enemies. That’s how fan dynamics work. Fans are not representatives of their respective teams or their schools and thank Dog for that.
But coaches and players ARE representatives of their teams and schools. Granted, we don’t get to see what happens behind the scenes. Maybe coach K has called up Roy and asked how Tyler is doing. Maybe Henderson sent an email to Tyler asking how he is and apologizing for his role in the incident.
The only information we have is the information that is presented to us. And so far I have received the impression that coach K and Henderson don’t see this as a big deal. They don’t think it was something worth building a bridge across I-40 to resolve.
I wonder though, had Henderson torn Johnson’s nose off instead of Tyler’s, would he have helped Johnson up and apologized?
In my opinion, when something like that happens, time stops, the rivalry stops for just a few moments, and there’s a reset. It was a mistake, not a manifestation of tobacco road hatred. As such, it should be treated differently than those rough and tense fouls we might see in a typical Duke/UNC game. I just don’t feel like the right steps have been taken. Granted, at this point I don’t care so much, but if Henderson is really not the kind of guy who would do that, you’d think he would be the kind of guy to say he’s sorry.
Comment by hepstyle— March 6, 2007 #
The guy from Everclear makes some good points:
http://www.sportsline.com/columns/story/10042792
(got it from cantstopthebleeding)
Comment by ric— March 6, 2007 #
Gregg Doyel is a moron. He and K deserve each other.
Comment by jackiemanuel— March 6, 2007 #