Several of you wrote us today about the Ken Burgess rant which reappeared on
ESPN's site. We'll just recap the basic stuff from before:
- no local sportswriters take Ken Burgess seriously, which is why no one
ever ran his diatribes around here, and why he had to find a UK friendly
reporter to run it. - Not coincidentally, Duke and Kentucky are in a recruiting battle over
Chris Duhon. Not that Tubby Smith needs to hire press hooligans to do
his dirty work, nor do we think he's that sort of man (we respect Tubby a
great deal), but that's pretty much what Forde has done by writing a poorly
researched, heavily biased article. - When the article ran originally, we did some research and found some
pretty strong material to counter a lot of what he said. Specifically,
his kid and Terry Simonton's kid actually refuted a lot of what Forde
reported, and it took us very little time to find their comments.Â
Additionally, we contacted some of our own sources and found a different
story. Our belief is that this is what happens when serious big money and
serious big egos are at stake. Our comments are posted under Our Call, with
the title, Ken We All Just Get Along? - Just as a reminder, Ken Burgess has "fired" two of Chris's
coaches when he felt Chris wasn't being well enough coached - one in high
school and one in college. We'll be interested to see how much crap Rick
Majerus puts up with from Burgess Sr.
Ken Burgess continues on his tirade, until he finds a new target at least,
apparently unaware or at least unconcerned about what he's done to
his reputation, and to his son's as well. That's the saddest part of
it. We love basketball, but at this point it's interfering in the
enjoyment of a normal life for these people, and that's just pitiful.Â
Chris has had a bizarre time in a lot of ways, from being damned for not going
to BYU by the coach, and being told he let down 19 million people, to his
free-throw problems, which was the worst mental problem we've seen in years in
basketball, to his dad's making his life ever more difficult. Realistically,
this is his last chance, and his dad isn't helping at all. The reason he didn't play at Duke wasn't that Coach K is a big meanie out to see to it that he fails. The reason he didn't play is because he didn't get the job done. Chris is talented and a decent kid from all accounts. He's got one big problem to deal with, but now so does Rick Majerus. Good luck to both of them, and good riddance. And we'll be interested to hear what comes from
BYU over the next three years. The rivalry there is very intense, and the fans
are going to be after Burgess - and his dad - in a major way. Chris doesn't deserve it, but after his bizarre petty tirades, Ken deserves just about whatever comes his way.