Good morning West Texans and all you good, fine, friendly folks out there who wish you were .
“There’s no place for that in sports,” Baylor coach Kim Mulkey said. “I will deal with Brittney Griner and it won’t be discussed in the media. Not me or [Tech coach] Kristy [Curry] or any player will be proud of what took place on the court tonight.”
-Baylor Coach Kim Mulkey
Mulkey is right.
There is no place in basketball or in life for sucker-punching another person. If you weren’t at the Texas Tech Lady Raider game last night against Baylor or you haven’t seen the video of Baylor’s Brittney Griner punching Tech’s Jordan Barncastle in the face then do so. Here’s some light reading for you.
Avalanche-Journal
A-J’s Column
ESPN
I’ve got to be consistent here and demand that the Lubbock County District Attorney’s office look into filing assault charges on Griner. I’ve said for years that athletes should face the same consequences as the guy at the bar if they cross the line of “acceptable risk” in a sporting event. For far too long we’ve excused criminal behavior in the name of sports. Why?
If you can’t do it to another person over a highly competitive game of shuffleboard at The Fox and Hound, why can Griner do it in front of police and others at The United Spirit Arena? It makes no sense and it is time this stupidity in our culture came to an end.
Just like Oregon’s LaGarrette Blount after the Boise State game in football received an initial season long suspension Baylor should do the right thing and sit down Griner for the rest of her freshman year. If they don’t I think we’ll continue to see this be a problem for her and the Bears both on and off the court for years to come.
If Griner can’t learn to handle her emotions now she’ll never serve Baylor or herself well in the future. I have a lot of respect for Kim Mulkey as a coach and I’m quit sure she’ll do the right thing. I wonder if the Big 12 Conference would have the guts to do anything beyond a one game suspension though. . . They hit OU’s Longar Longar a few years back with a two-gamer for a flagrant foul. What does a sucker-punch get you now in this league? We’ll find out.
Coming up later today on The Williams and Hyatt Show we’ll visit with legal experts about the chances of charges being filed against Griner and why or why not athletes get special protection. We may or may not visit with a representative of Lubbock’s D. A. office. That’s developing. See you at 3 on The Fan.
MORE LATER
HYATT
I hate to see that you are judging an 18 year old girl virtually for the rest of her life because of one unfortunate incident. For heaven’s sake, I was at the Texas Tech-Baylor game and can tell you after all the punching Brittaney Griner took all night long from not only Jordan Barncastle but several other Tech players and the abusive language and name calling she took from them as well I thought she handled herself rather calmly. Your Lubbock newspaper reported that Jordan Barncastle’s nearly ripping Griner’s arm out of it’s socket before the punch was an accident. I’ll have to call bull on that one. If that was an accident then so was Brittaney’s punch to Barncastle. It seems all you people so quick to judge Griner have quickly forgotten Andrea Riley’s same act last year of which she has yet to be punished. Brittaney Griner is the kindest, gentlest and most caring young woman I’ve met in years and if you knew her or she played for Tech you all would say the same thing. I agree that stupidity in America, sports or otherwise, needs to stop and it can begin with you.
Kim,
I’m no fan of Riley either. Her coach could have taught her some more life-lessons as well that I think will come in handy for her as she moves on . . .
Griner is being judged on her actions so far and nothing more. Hopefully she’ll learn from this.