Indy Star apologizes to Coach K for illustration

You can't blame this on workload.

It was just a shitty idea. And this is coming from me, a guy that owns a Duck Fuke shirt.

 

I think the idea itself was solid. Hell, didn't we start our own hate Duke thread? Duke hasn't had any sort of national pull since Laetnner (sic) gut-stomped that UK player in '92. Everyone has LOVED to hate Duke since then. They'd be the least loved team in most any Final Four... and that's amplified given this year's field. So, yeah, the idea works.

But the execution? Not so much.

 

Not a great idea and bad art. But I wouldn't apologize to anyone. Fuck K. He's a big boy. He can take it. But of course he's the same guy who couldn't stomach the student paper giving his team grades that weren't straight As.

 

About 9 years ago --- at full staffing --- we had one of the worst examples of a photo illustration appear on our section front.

Can't blame this one on lack of manpower.

 

Star deserves whatever it gets, but Coach K comes off like a humorless douche in that story.

 

Can somebody explain to me why this is being universally panned? Because, honestly, I don't get it.
The story was about the country's general dislike, almost irrational dislike, for Duke. There were plenty of quotes from players about how UNC and NC State have larger followings in North Carolina, so it's not like the players and coaches are unaware of how they're perceived.
The illustration played off of that perception, showing that the hatred is almost — to borrow a phrase from Coach K — juvenile. Doodling on a picture is something you do in sixth grade. Irrationally hating a good team that wins without breaking the rules is kind of the grown up equivalent. Frankly, I thought the illustration was brilliant.
I guess I can see why Coach K is upset. I just don't see why so many other people are.

 

Juvenile, yes, but intended to satirize any given yearbook of the last 20 years.

An idea that just fell flat.

 

I don't know . . . if the idea was to illustrate how disliked Coach K is (and I am not among those who dislike him; thought his response was great and to-the-point), I actually think it's kind of clever. Lowbrow, yes. Juvenile, absolutely. But deserving of the profuse apologies? Maybe they could have executed it better . . . gotten rid of the target, to start with. But I can imagine some Duke hater seeing a Coach K photo, taking up a Sharpie, and saying "Oh, you sanctimonious jerk, have a bit of THIS!" and drawing the devils horns. It's an example of how, well, JUVENILE sports fans have fun.

In any event, ultimately this is the sports section. We're not curing cancer here. Have no problem with it.

 

Funny I've never thought Coach K was disliked. Always have felt it was his snotty kids. People seem to be able to disconnect Coach K from the program even though they are closely related.

 

Well, K recruits and coaches those players, so their identity is considered to be part of his own. I don't think that's TOO unfair. For the record, I never found him a bad guy or a dissembler. Pompous, yes.

 

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