Thoughtful Column from a surprising source

[pokeresq]

Like many Duke fans I generally do not read Gregg Doyel, but the column below was surprising both for its fair treatment of K and balanced consideration of CBB in the context of the larger world during this time of Covid. Worth a read, imo

https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/2020/12/11/college-basketball-covid-19-crisis-tests-safety-priorities-mike-krzyzewski-coach-k/3896825001/

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

Like many Duke fans I generally do not read Gregg Doyel, but the column below was surprising both for its fair treatment of K and balanced consideration of CBB in the context of the larger world during this time of Covid. Worth a read, imo

https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/2020/12/11/college-basketball-covid-19-crisis-tests-safety-priorities-mike-krzyzewski-coach-k/3896825001/

Nope. Not reading Doyel. If you wanna summarize, I'm happy to learn, but that POS gives me nothing. I don't like his perspective, his bias, or his writing style.

[Dr. Rosenrosen]

Thanks for sharing. A good, sane take on the laughable attempt to preserve college sports during the worst part of this pandemic at the possible expense of college athletes’ physical and mental health. I also appreciate him calling out our misplaced values as a society right now... athletes tested daily so they can entertain us while frontline healthcare workers can’t get a test unless they have symptoms.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

Thanks for sharing. A good, sane take on the laughable attempt to preserve college sports during the worst part of this pandemic at the possible expense of college athletes’ physical and mental health. I also appreciate him calling out our misplaced values as a society right now... athletes teated daily so they can entertain us while frontline healthcare workers can’t get a test unless they have symptoms.

This I agree on.

I find is very strange that NBA players seem to be on the shortlist of folks to get early vaccines.

[Dr. Rosenrosen]

Nope. Not reading Doyel. If you wanna summarize, I'm happy to learn, but that POS gives me nothing. I don't like his perspective, his bias, or his writing style.
You’d likely be pleasantly surprised if you were to read it...

[fuse]

Not a Doyell fan, glad I read it. Thanks for sharing.

[weezie]

Nope. Not reading Doyel. If you wanna summarize, I'm happy to learn, but that POS gives me nothing. I don't like his perspective, his bias, or his writing style.

Agreed. He's a terrible writer. Perhaps whatever he went through during his non-Covid hospital stint helped his perspective but I'd appreciate a synopsis. If he feels that K has a good point, fine by me.

[Steven43]

Nope. Not reading Doyel. If you wanna summarize, I'm happy to learn, but that POS gives me nothing. I don't like his perspective, his bias, or his writing style.

Yeah, I recall the guy being a consistently fervent hater of all things Coach K and Duke. His opinions seemed extremely biased and overly-aggressive with very little nuance. I wrote him off a long time ago.

However, I will read this article based on the recommendation of a couple of good DBR posters.

[gep]

I thought it was a good article was good... fair, and spot-on. I liked the story of the coach who had a freshman quarantined for 10 days alone over Thanksgiving. He brought over a Thanksgiving dinner, but had to give it to the dorm manager, who then took it the the freshman's room, put it on the floor, knocked on the door, and walked away. Then as the coach was leaving, he saw the freshman waving to him from the window. Wow...

And he basically agreed with Coach K, and referenced Oats as "that all-knowing clown".

Also, how his nurses were only tested once in May, or not tested at all, while these basketball players are being tested daily. Nurses, obviously, were not happy.

[pokeresq]

Nate Oats apologized and apparently Coach K accepted. It really is the season of goodwill toward men!

Nate Oats: "I want to publicly apologize to Coach K for what I said. ... I actually felt terrible about it after the press conference. I reached out to him. He was gracious enough to return my call. I have the utmost respect for him as a coach."

https://twitter.com/Charlie_Potter/status/1337977549356412928

[Tooold]

I completely agree with this article.
1) I don’t think this is safe for the players OR coaches (don’t tell me they are safer playing because they are separated from the general student population or that they are tested frequently...not when they have super close contact with players from other schools who may or may not be following the same rules, and there is a lot of spit and sweat bouncing around...)
2) we are dedicating so many resources to them that could be used for everyone else, including essential workers like nurses
3)we really don’t yet know the long term effect that CoVid, even a mild case, could have on a young athlete. There are some small studies that indicate there could be some serious issues. Why take that chance with these young people?
4) if we believe we need to lock down again (at least in certain parts of the country), closing small restaurants and businesses (and affecting so many people’s livelihoods), how do we justify the continuation of sports at any level, especially with student-athletes?

I just think we have our priorities completely misplaced. I am an engineer...I like logic. This is not logical.

[Tripping William]

I, too, refuse to give Gregggggggg any clicks, so I’m just going off the summaries here. But I think the really, really hard question is:

How long will we fans continue to feed The Bea$t?

(NB: The tipping-point to that question is probably highly individualized.)

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

I, too, refuse to give Gregggggggg any clicks, so I’m just going off the summaries here. But I think the really, really hard question is:

How long will we fans continue to feed The Bea$t?

(NB: The tipping-point to that question is probably highly individualized.)

I was starting to feel alone on my island here. Thanks for also remembering how poorly Gregg has treated Duke and K in the past.

Glad he is on our side this time, but the guy is a massive d-bag who says whatever to get clicks.

Oh, and yes, there's no universe in which any of this makes sense.

[wilson]

...A good, sane take on the laughable attempt to preserve college sports during the worst part of this pandemic at the possible expense of college athletes’ physical and mental health. I also appreciate him calling out our misplaced values as a society right now... athletes tested daily so they can entertain us while frontline healthcare workers can’t get a test unless they have symptoms.


I completely agree with this article.
1) I don’t think this is safe for the players OR coaches (don’t tell me they are safer playing because they are separated from the general student population or that they are tested frequently...not when they have super close contact with players from other schools who may or may not be following the same rules, and there is a lot of spit and sweat bouncing around...)
2) we are dedicating so many resources to them that could be used for everyone else, including essential workers like nurses
3)we really don’t yet know the long term effect that CoVid, even a mild case, could have on a young athlete. There are some small studies that indicate there could be some serious issues. Why take that chance with these young people?
4) if we believe we need to lock down again (at least in certain parts of the country), closing small restaurants and businesses (and affecting so many people’s livelihoods), how do we justify the continuation of sports at any level, especially with student-athletes?

I just think we have our priorities completely misplaced. I am an engineer...I like logic. This is not logical.


...How long will we fans continue to feed The Bea$t?

(NB: The tipping-point to that question is probably highly individualized.)Chiming in to say that I too think our priorities are completely out of whack, and I've largely written off college athletics for the near future because of philosophical misgivings that I just can't ignore anymore. This came up briefly (actually, I brought it up) on the Off-Topic Board the other day. It's been eating at me in recent years anyway, before Covid, that big-time sports seem to be increasingly antithetical to universities' core missions, and I heartily believe that they're a major (but not the only) component of the erosion of higher education and the ever more egregious bloating of tuition bills and non-essential facilities, staff, expenses, etc. Now, in light of the glaring issues outlined by these quoted posts (and others), it's quite difficult for me to enjoy college sports much for the time being. I watched effectively zero college football this fall (not watching Duke FB seems to have been a good decision this year), and I halfheartedly watched the first half of the Michigan State game a couple of weeks ago, have not watched any other college basketball, and have no intention or real desire to do so anytime soon. It's sad on a certain level, but when I really think about it, it's also an unsurprising evolution of my personal views.

[kako]

Even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes. Doyle found his nut.

It's a good article, it brings up good points. But the answer is what we all know - money talks. The business of sports can pay for the tests that business of hospitals, schools, etc. cannot. Yes, our priorities are screwed up.

I love Duke basketball, but I would be fine if they shut down for the season. Duke would take a lot of crap from the haters because of their record, but I could live with that. I'd feel badly for the players, but not worse than for those nurses in Doyle's article. Or for the folks who are dying each day. Because the reason there are games being played is not for the players. Or the fans. It's for the sports business machine (college and pro), which demands it must make money, come hell, high water or COVID.

I need a drink.

9F

[Steven43]

Even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes. Doyle found his nut.

Be very careful with that wording, kako. This is a family website — albeit one that is occasionally mentally unstable. But still a family.

[johnb]

Like many Duke fans I generally do not read Gregg Doyel, but the column below was surprising both for its fair treatment of K and balanced consideration of CBB in the context of the larger world during this time of Covid. Worth a read, imo

https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/2020/12/11/college-basketball-covid-19-crisis-tests-safety-priorities-mike-krzyzewski-coach-k/3896825001/

I’d forgotten that Doyle desperately needs a grammarly subscription. His writing is just awful.

One nit. Well, not a known nit since it just occurred to me. The cost in testing health care workers isn’t the test (which would often be free to the hospitals) but the reality that they’d have to do something with the positive results. Given that hospitals have been getting short handed at exactly the time that their employees would be likely to be ill (during local COVID bursts), hospital administrators seem to have made the decision to expose patients and staff so their particular hospital can be adequately staffed.

If we had a national health care system, individual hospitals might have to act more broadly (but might also have access to health care workers who’d cycle around to hot spots).