Recently, Duke basketball player Grayson Allen was caught in his third tripping incident in a game against Elon University. He was suspended indefinitely by Coach Mike Krzyzewski and received harsh backlash from the media. This criticism was well deserved, but I do not think that Grayson Allen is a terrible person and intentionally trips people. He does, however, have an instinct to trip players when they run past him on the court. Vice Sports reported that “Coach K was sort of defiant in his words on the trip, acknowledging that what Allen did was wrong but insisted that “he’s a good kid,” despite these seemingly routine dirty incidents” (Newell). Coach K knows Allen better than almost anyone, and is adamant about how Allen has a good soul. At this point in time, Allen has two options. The first option, and the one most likely to happen, is that Grayson Allen receives help from people within Duke on his issues. He gets therapy or a yelling session that helps him get rid of his instinct to trip people in games. The second option is that Grayson Allen embraces the role as a bad guy. On past Duke teams, there have been white players who took on the role of villains. Christian Laettner and J. J. Reddick are the most notable examples. These players embraced their role as dirty players and used it to their advantage. They did not care that the whole world hated them. They used the hate as fuel and did whatever they wanted on the court. They used hate to generate attention and good media headlines. Grayson Allen would fit into this mold very well with his background and style of play. Despite this, Allen does not want to accept a bad guy position. Because of this, Allen is caught in the middle. He is a white basketball player from Duke committing dirty plays, but he does not accept the role as a villain. It would be better for basketball and Duke is he chose a side. If he turned good, then everything would be normal and Duke basketball would be focused again. If he turned bad, then he would generate attention and headlines for himself and Duke. All recognition is good, and the fans would love another bad guy in college basketball. Sooner rather than later, Grayson Allen should either embrace his position, or receive help for his problems.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7cTs4zpI3CQ
Duke Suspends Grayson Allen Indefinitely After Latest Tripping Incident - VICE
https://apple.news/APn0SW9LPRKqsl2SLt79GcQ
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