Chuck A wrote:PowderBlue wrote:
I don't disagree with your overall premise here (he should be fired), but I'd like to point out that the young men playing for him are deemed adults, so the parent/child argument is irrelevant. That being said, I have zero issues with a coach with some real fire. I have zero issue with a vulgar coach, there are vulgar people all over the place in this world. Kids can choose to transfer and not play for a coach whose personality they don't agree with. However, I have real issues with throwing basketballs at the head and knees of your players. That's assault in my opinion.
I do agree that the players are adults in the literal sense of the word, but come on. The parent/child or authority/subordinate argument does come into play. Those kids, sorry, adults, are bound to Rutgers by a scholarship that pays for their education. There are only so many schollies around D1 basketball. Some of the players can't afford to transfer so are bound to Rutgers. If these players weren't bound to a contract, you don't think as adults, they would defend themselves? They can't because with defending themselves or retaliating comes dismissal from the program and the coach getting on the horn and calling members of his coaching fraternity to now blackball the leaving player. That 10th. 11th, 12th and so on player at the end of the bench cannot so readily transfer as he won't have other institutions lining up for his services.
From the video (and you don't need to watch hundreds of hours of it), Mike Rice is a mean-spirited man with a hair-trigger temper and if something is not done to rein in his emotions (like therapy and being away from anything competitive), we'll be reading about or watching a report on him in the news with an orange jumpsuit on.
I agree with your last paragraph completely. I'm glad he was let go and I truly hope he never gets another coaching job. Truthfully, I hope some of those players take him to court.
I see the points in your first paragraph, but at some point, I do think the players (or assistant coaches!?) would and should defend themselves (as a team). Don't show up. Take the entire team to the AD. I'm not blaming them for not doing something, as I've admittedly never been a D1 athlete nor do I know what was going on behind the scenes (how deep did his abuse go: on the court only? threats of pulling scholies? threats of blocking transfers? Who knows.)
I'm probably more frustrated by the lack of actions by his assistants.
The one reason I spoke out from a different angle is simply because the knee jerk reaction is going to be to lynch the guy. Again, I agree he should have been fired (the first time...it shouldn't have taken this long). I just wish the young men involved would have taken action - not physically - to oust him sooner.
