By Kyle Basedow
I do not think Mike Rice Jr. is a bad man.
That being said, I do not think he is a good man.
Rather, Mike Rice is a man who made a mistake (on multiple
occasions) that was discovered by members of the media as well as the
administration at Rutgers University.
When Rice was fired from coaching the Rutgers men’s
basketball team for verbal and physical abuse of players, it gave rise to a new
issue.
How far is too far?
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| AP Photo/ H. Rumph Jr. |
Look, I understand that coaching isn’t easy. Some people
just aren’t built to teach and lead at the same time. I understand that
sometimes you want to yell, and scream, and throw a temper tantrum and whine
about your life. But the minute that it becomes a personal attack on a player,
whether it be verbal or physical, it has gone too far.
Did Mike Rice actually dislike his team? Probably not.
Coaching can get your blood pumping just as fast as if you
were playing. I’ve seen coaches have to take off their jackets and grab towels
from their players to wipe the sweat off. That being said, no matter how angry
you get, no matter how frustrating your team is or how badly they’re playing,
you CAN NOT let it reflect in your actions, especially towards your players.
Now, yelling at players can get passed off as acceptable behavior,
but only to an extent. With the noise coming from the fans and the other team,
sometimes you have to yell just to be heard. Sometimes one of your players is
going to make a bonehead play and deserves to get his ear chewed off for it.
That happens every day, in every sport, at almost every
level. What doesn’t happen is the continuation. The yelling stops almost as
soon as it begins.
When an athlete is yelled at, they take it to heart. The
better you are, the more you care. Getting yelled at makes them mad, makes them
want to prove their coach wrong. It inspires their competitive nature in an
attempt to bring out their best.
The minute that the yelling becomes personal, things start
to go wrong.
Personally, if a coach ever yelled at me in a way that I
thought was personal, I would have taken off my jersey and handed it to him.
There’s no need for me to stick around if there’s no respect between us.
Now, if a coach ever threw a basketball at me like Mike Rice
threw them at his players, I would have thrown it right back and walked away.
College sports have more of a grey area then other age
levels because players are torn between respect for themselves and for their
coaches.
Only a few of Rice’s players left while he was coach and
they were the only ones who mentioned their treatment. The current players
didn’t speak up for themselves because while Rice abused them, they still had
respect for him because he was their coach.
As athletes age, I think the amount that they put up with this
kind of treatment decreases. They understand that they deserve respect. This is
why you never really see an NHL coach yelling at his goalie, or an MLB manager
screaming at his pitchers.
Coaches know that mutual respect between themselves and the
players is crucial.
So where do you draw the line?
It can't be
personal, it can't be derogatory, and it absolutely can't be physical.
That to me indicates a significant character flaw. If you think that you
have the right to berate someone, no matter who you are, then something is
wrong.
