Let's Talk About the Duke Court Storming Incident

I want to start out this piece today by saying I think court storming is stupid, unless your team has just won the title. That seems like the only appropriate time for fans to be so excited that they leave their seats and run onto the floor to celebrate with the team. Even then, it seems like a bit much. The fans didn't do anything other than cheer for their favorite team. The players and coaches are the only ones that should be out there right after the game ends.

With all that being said, I now despise Duke men's basketball even more than I thought possible. For people who may nor know, Duke played Wake Forest recently, Wake Forest won, the game was at home and their fans ran onto the court. During this, some of the fans ran into Kyle Filipowski, one of Duke's star players, and he went down in a heap. At the moment, it looked pretty bad. I read that he may have had some kind of structural damage to his knee. At best, for him, it looked like he may have sprained his ankle. Either way, Filipowski looked hurt. But then all the grandstanding from Duke's coach and players started. Duke's coach, John Scheyer, made a face on the floor that looked like someone was physically abusing him. He went into the post game conference and bitched and moaned nonstop. He called for an end to court storming. He wanted to know if the ACC was going to do something about what happened. He said that he was certain Filipowski was badly injured. He cried and cried. And, of course, ESPN latched onto this story and took Scheyer's side. Soon other coaches found a reason to bemoan court storming. This was their in. They just needed someone to whine first before they could all complain.

This actually reminded me a lot of the Michigan sign stealing "scandal". Coaches just needed someone else to bring it up so they could all play the martyr. That is exactly what is happening with Duke and the court storming. Filipowski could have stayed quiet and just tried to heal, but like the white Duke basketball player he is, he came out and said he thought it was "personal". He claimed that it felt like people were purposely running into him during the court rush. He was certain he was badly injured. But as the days have dragged on since it has been revealed there is no structural damage to any part of his body. He may have had a sprain, but it was mild at best. He came out yesterday and said he was "sore". Scheyer has said that he is "doubtful" for their upcoming game against Louisville.

All of this is hilarious to me. This is just a narrative they are pushing that will favor Duke in the eyes of the media. If they play Louisville without Filipowski and they get beat or it is too close for comfort, the powers that be at Duke can say they were missing one of their key guys due to "wild fans" at Wake Forest running on the floor. But, if he miraculously plays, I'm being sarcastic, and plays well, the ESPN's of the world can call him a "warrior". They will compare him to Willis Reed or Paul Pierce. By the way, we all know Pierce pooped his pants. The cat is out of the bag. But Filipowski, Scheyer and Duke are in a win-win. They can do no wrong in this case. A bunch of people are on their side. The narrative has switched from Wake upsetting a highly ranked Duke team to, their fans are crazy and they intentionally hurt a star Duke player. Add to that that Filipowski is white, the main media is creaming in their jeans over this whole thing. Meanwhile, I find this hilarious and catty from Duke. They need a built in excuse for why they are not a contender yet again. This is too perfect coming from this basketball team at this university. I guarantee that the media wouldn't be this crazy about this story if it happened to J'Wan Roberts from Houston. Or Zach Edey from Purdue. Or Caleb Love from Arizona. The media is skewed in the wrong direction, but now they have this story to keep them afloat even longer. I am champing at the bit to see the hubbub when he does suit up and play the game against Louisville. It is going to be so sappy and so stupid.

Get over yourselves Duke. You will not stop courts from being rushed, and you should have won the game. Like they were supposed to do. They could have avoided this whole thing if they were a little better at basketball. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet.

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