I HATE TO OPEN OLD WOUNDS — but, hey, we are heading fast into basketball
season — and I always was bad about picking at a scab.
When two of the blue bloods of college basketball meet we expect blood on the floor
figuratively, but not literally. In recent memory there has been a lot of bad blood
between the Duke and North Carolina men’s basketball teams, but mostly that has just
been a figure of speech.
But not always. “Don’t make Eric bleed.” That was my advice to Tar Heel opponents
in the 1990 to 1994 era. Eric Montross was a very nice player when he played for
Carolina — too nice. Eric still is one of the nicest people you would ever want to meet.
(For a point of reference, he’s in the Hubert-Davis class.)
But as Duke should have learned: “Don’t make Eric bleed.” Eric was nice player when
not hemorrhaging; a great player when he was. Montross scored 12 points, grabbed
nine rebounds and blocked three shots while bleeding from two different cuts on his
head in a UNC victory over Duke in 1993. (You may remember the famous picture with
a trickle of blood running down his forehead.)
How does such bad blood arise? Certainly not coaching, per se. As two good
Christian men, Dean Smith, an oxymoronic liberal Baptist, and Mike Krzyzewski, a
consistently profane Catholic, certainly loved each other with a deep and abiding godly
love — but, boy, they sure didn’t like each other. I swear their blood would turn to ice
as they went to make their perfunctory courtesy handshake after each game. During
the Bill Guthridge years there was something of a warming, but then Matt Doherty
arrived, followed by Roy Williams, and the blood pressure has risen.
Which brings us to somewhat fresher blood. Whatever Duke guard Gerald Henderson
did in year-before-last’s regular season finale, and I say as the one man in America who
replayed the slo-mo Tivo of the slo-mo video of Henderson’s end-of-game foul on Tyler
Hansbrough more times than the rest of America replayed Janet Jackson’s Superbowl
wardrobe malfunction, it was not premeditated assault. It wasn’t basketball either.
At the very least it was reckless endangerment. When viewed as a digital slow-motion
of video slow motion, Henderson appears to be attempting the ever-popular “hard
foul,” by the use of a sometimes legal football play, the forearm shiver. He was not
trying to block a shot. He had his eyes closed at the moment of contact.
The officials, in my view, got it right. “A flagrant foul for combative and confrontational
action” is what it was, and as such is treated the same as a punch, as it should be.
The ejection also brought an automatic suspension for Henderson for Duke’s next
game under NCAA rules.
By all reports, Gerald Henderson is a nice and decent person. But, then again, so is
Wake Forest’s Chris Paul — but that didn’t make his literal low blow on NC State’s
Julius Hodge any less painful.
Henderson’s post-game comments didn’t help clear the bloodied waters any. “Guys
got caught up in the air and I just came down on him,” Henderson said. “I was not
intentionally trying to hurt anybody. Obviously, it was a foul. I was not trying to hurt or
hit the kid,” said Henderson. So far, so good.
But then rather than giving an immediate apology to Hansbrough, Henderson had to
add: “I’ve seen blood before and it’s a physical game.” My thought: he may well see it
again — and I was sure that it was to be a physical game. (Historical footnote: The
next game was a gentlemanly affair in which “Psycho T” Hansbrough did not kill “G”
Henderson — or even maim him.)
Some might note that television commentator Billy Packer instantly and adamantly
disagreed with my assessment. I respond, as would most of those who have
involuntarily listened to Packer-headed broadcasts: more evidence for my view. On the
rare occasion when Packer agrees with one of my astute observations, I immediately
reassess my view. I invariably determine I was wrong.
***
And speaking of blue blood boiling, if Barack Obama did not carry on Tuesday North
Carolina (this article was submitted before the election results were in), and he did not
win the electoral college because of that, I can pinpoint the massive strategic blunder
that cost him the presidency. It was sending actress Ashley Judd, the world’s number
one Kentucky Wildcat basketball fan (just watch her dance during timeouts at Kentucky
home games), to electioneer for the Obama-Biden ticket. Judd is the only person that I
know who that could instantly unite Duke and UNC fans against whatever they were
for.
Regardless of the winners (if we know yet), they are in my prayers — because they are
going to need them.
Gary D. Gaddy, who himself bleeds Carolina Blue, once made another player bleed
during a pickup basketball game in UNC’s historic Woollen Gym — unfortunately it was
his own teammate.
A version of this story was published in the Chapel Hill Herald on Thursday November
6, 2008.
Copyright 2008 Gary D. Gaddy
garygaddy.com 