No time for a column proper — I hate my job — but I wanted to record some of the comments I’ve made over this whole Billy Reed article fiasco that Tru at A Sea of Blue has already addressed. First up, my comment I left on Billy Reed’s blog (which was awaiting moderation due to a hyperlink, I suppose):
Mr. Reed, you’re an accomplished journalist. Nobody can argue that. Your blog has been around for a while, so I take it you’re familiar with the way blogs work. I’m no dummy, either, so let’s call this post exactly what it is; flamebait.
Surely somebody with your journalism history, writing stories the past 40+ years, would not base a whole column about “rumors” which you cannot directly address. If you had a source, even an “anonymous” source, you would have detailed EXACTLY what Billy Gillispie is accused of doing.
Even your details — not taking Van Florence on away games — seem sketchy. Who’s asked UKAA or Van about this? Shouldn’t that be covered before publishing with the detail? I never had a journalism class, but isn’t basing your opinion in truth key in writing a solid column?
So there’s no way you actually believe what you just wrote. I take it you’re trolling for the Big Blue crazies that you read/hear about on catspause.com. Is this a chapter of your latest book that tries to rightly define the UK fanbase? Or were you just looking for shits and giggles?
Whatever the reason, you can’t fool me. This isn’t a Billy Reed column proper.
I forgot to add that another possibility is that Billy Reed is intentionally proving Stephen A. Smith’s missive that blogging causes “a total disregard, a level of wrecklessness” in sports reporting.
Meanwhile, ever anxious to stick it to the Wildcat Basketball fans, my good buddy GatorPilot stated Patrick Patterson made the wrong choice in coming to Kentucky. I think overall GatorPilot got what he wanted — a riled up Tru and Kentucky Fanbase, and a clever reference to the Indiana Jones movie. I appreciate the comedy combo he unleashed. But in the comments, I wanted to remind him of something:
What you Gator guys forget is that Kentuckians favor a good story over the truth. And they favor more being tied to the story — “my brother’s roommate at the game said,” “my cousin who works at Merrick Inn saw,” “my lawyer who knows Mitch had dinner,” etc. This has been going on for ages; its part of our culture. The Internet makes it public outside of the Bluegrass State.
So whenever I hear things like “Billy Donovan’s wife was horse-farm hunting in Lexington in March”, I laugh about it. Actually, it was several Billy Donovan rumors that completely convinced me that any rumor involving UK Basketball is no less than 75% full of shit.
In relation to all this, I agree with Chris at Intentional Foul: “Either show and prove or just keep quiet. Even the sports bloggers of the world seem to understand this.” (Well, except the sports bloggers who are fans of the opposition, of course.) But I would take it a step further.
Saying “my brother heard” or “my cousin saw” doesn’t count anymore. Bring out the proof, or shut the hell up.
Show me the videos of Gillispie drunk off his rocker getting into a car to drive home. Show me pictures of Gillispie near Lexington Police Chief Anthany Beatty the night that allegedly Beatty called a squad car for Gillispie to either take the coach home or to jail. Let me see the raunchy text messages Gillispie allegedly sent to a hotel employee. Let me see pictures of Gillispie with his 19-year-old girlfriend, that aren’t obviously photoshopped or from some social event.
This is a call for truth, not vandalism or paparazzi-type misery. If he’s truly this bad, it will be blatently obvious and recorded with something other than a “They Say” story. Besides, if any of these events were true, it would be best to get them right out in the open. If Gillispie’s poor conduct was outed, he would be forced to deal with the consequences of his conduct. Then we can all move forward.
Kentucky fans, bring the shame or stop talking about it. Stop feeding into the nonsense that you heard from whoever or wherever on the Internet. Until I start seeing proof, I call bullshit on every story.
Of course, I suppose nobody would be talking rumors so loudly if the team was winning instead of losing. I just checked the Houston score on ESPN Gamecast. *sigh*
