Doyel and Boeheim

How would you respond to a question from someone who, quite publicly, demanded you be fired?
This is why it's such nonsense for journalists to make such "demands."
Then when someone fires back, they're the ones who are "overly sensitive" or "unprofessional."
Unbelievable.

 

Twoback, just so long as you don't include me in the group of people calling Boeheim "sensitive" or "unprofessional." I don't much care what he does to me -- I'll write about it, but I won't bemoan it -- but the juxtaposition between his response and Burke's was pretty telling I thought.

Anyway, given that (1) I had called for his dismissal and (2) I had the bad luck of being picked first to ask a question at his press conference, he was bound to lash out. This thing got a lot more attention than it deserved, I think.

 

I don't think the juxtaposition is telling at all.

On one hand, a guy who I don't think has ever even hinted this might have been his last season is asked if he might retire/quit/be gone by someone who has publicly called for him to be fired from a job he's had forever.

On the other, a kid is asked if he's about to leave school early to go on to bigger and better things and make millions of dollars because he's great.

What? You say the first one reacted negatively and the second positively?

Go figure.

 

Not really "bad luck" to be picked first - if you have your hand up.

 

Da Man: Boeheim himself said -- on our second go-around -- that he would have quit rather than coach in the ACC had the Big East been the same Big East he knew and loved. I didn't KNOW he felt that way, but I sensed (he made it clear) he wasn't thrilled about coaching in the ACC. Hence my question.

Azrael, surely you've been in these press conferences. They open it to questions. The moderator said, "If you have a question for Coach Boeheim, raise your hand." On deadline, with time for about 10 questions before they let Boeheim go, you raise your hand to get in line as much as anything else. Had I waited, say, three questions to raise my hand, there was no guarantee I'd be picked at all. There was no guarantee I'd be picked even by raising my hand immediately. The moderator, Mark Fratto, told me "it looked like 100 people raised their hands." So being called first? Bad luck.

 

Right. That question gets Boeheim talking about the Big East without the drama.