NYDN piece on legendary boys hoops coach facing a sex abuse lawsuit

I want to make it clear there was no vibe that made me suspect anything. It's only that to a young (at the time) sportswriter in south Louisiana, Bob Oliva was the only hoops coach from NY I knew anything about. Now, years later, for some reason I thought of him when I saw the subject line. That's only because he's my only personal connection to prep basketball in NY.

I never had any reason to suspect him of any wrongoing. Sorry if my post made it seem that way.

 

Uh, yep.

In the Starman World of Justice, one (and only one) of the following responses to criminal allegations is always preferable:

a) Statute of Limitations
b) Everyone Else Does it
c) The Media is Picking On Me
d) It's Not Fair That Anyone Found Out
e) I Did It, But It's Really Not That Bad
f) The Victim Was Asking For It
g) I Was On Drugs/Drunk At The Time
h) I Did It, but I've Found Jesus, and Now I'm Really Really Sorry
i) I DIDN'T DO IT

Hmmmm. Figure it out. :

 

And to be even more clear, when I said "fit the description of the subject line," I was referring to "legendary boys hoops coach" and not "facing a sex abuse lawsuit," which I consider an allegation rather than a description.

 

Starman: How about "I did it."

Then plead guilty and save a lot of people a lot of time.

(That is, of course, assuming the person did it)

 

Shot: Where did you see that?

I saw:

*****
"I deny every bit of it," the 64-year-old Oliva says of the abuse allegations. "It's unbelievable how he concocted that story."
*****

 

I don't say this that often, but whomever edited that story did a great job. The reporting and writing is great, but the tone is what really hooked me.
It didn't automatically take the accuser's side, it answered all of the questions in my head, was detailed enough to make me think there is merit to telling the story, it is clear that there were enough rumors and scuttlebutt out in the community that this story needed to be told and it was very well paced.

When I was a kid, we always wondered about any older guy who hung out with kids more than two grades below them. We never thought about sex abuse, just that the older guy must be too lame to have friends his own age.

As for the Seattle Times series, I don't understand why they focused on male coaches and female victims. I've heard of plenty of rumors of female coaches, and male coaches and male players.

 

What about "youthful indiscretion"? Even if you're in your 40s?

(The preceding post was brought to you by Henry Hyde.)

 

Page 2, Billy.

 

I thought I saw a reference to that in one of the reader comments, but I thought it was the reader making the statement, not a quote from the story. I was skimming, though, after just waking up, and didn't read it carefully until later.

 

OK, I hunted a little bit for it, but I missed it.

Thanks.

 

So did I. I was about to say they'd removed it since I had read it, but finally I found it.

 

I was reminded of this one:

http://articles.latimes.com/2001/feb/23/local/me-29300