Indy Star apologizes to Coach K for illustration

Remove the target and the illustration is fine.

It's what a lot of people think: "I hate Duke and Coach K." They scribble horns and moustaches on his face, or worse.

What if they had used a photo of Kryz screaming or scowling at a player? Would that have been any better? Probably not. Head-bobbing defenders would say he'd been portrayed as a bad guy and the Star should apologize.

Waa waa waaaaaa. Call the Waaaambulance. Duke doesn't like being considered evil? Big deal. Write the topic story people are and will be talking about and move on.

 

The new class of drugs can really clear that up for you, bro.

As for the illustration, I didn't find it offensive, just really really lame. There has to be a better way to personify America's well-reasoned hatred for Duke.

 

Good thing the Duke message boarders are keeping things in perspective:

"Journalism (not that this is) has fell to a new low. This is pathetic pulp put out by the dregs of humanity."

Not sure what the big deal is. The story was about how people hate Duke and why. Who can argue that that's the case? The story certainly supports it. The artwork wasn't supposed to represent the Star's view, but the Star's interpretation of what others think about Duke (again, as supported by the piece). Coach K. is obviously the lightning rod of the anti-Duke sentiment, especially in transient college basketball of 2010. There's no Hurley or Laettner or Redick on that team.

At first I thought the apology was for the target on his forehead, i.e. poor taste that someone should actually shoot him, but no one seems to be mentioning that as the issue, and anyway it seemed like a takeoff on the "Saw" movie series villain, not an invitation to assassinate the head coach.

Between this and Urban Meyer, there is a lot of misplaced outrage going on in college sports lately. It's like the sports world as a whole needs to get laid.

 

Same picture, without the drawings, and with a superimposed blue and white headline that said "Boo Devils"

 

Much better. Duke knows that it is despised by many. But what the Star did was excessively juvenile. Nice to see the editor was willing to meet with Mike Krzyzewski ... the willingness to face the music after a stunt like that doesn't make it go away, but it's a big step back in the right direction.

 

How many editors had to sign off on that, I wonder?

 

Yes, the media must prostrate themselves before the Almighty Coach K when they have done something that upsets him.

The reaction to this, and the slobbering apologies, are way beyond the actual impact of the original photo.

 

I agree with most of the sentiment here. Good idea, bad execution. I was totally confused by the whole Jigsaw deal. I'm not a Duke fan by any means but I don't liken Coach K to a sadistic serial killer.

 

A step in the right direction would be the Star not apologizing for a satire of the way people view Duke.

Again: From the way I understand it, looking at it, this was not meant as the Star's opinion of Coach K. It was a representation of the way that American college basketball fans view Duke. The hatred can seem downright juvenile. Hence, a juvenile photo illustration.

This reminds me of the stink over the New Yorker Obama cover.

 

Then write about how much Duke is despised by fans and observers and such. Fine. But putting that crap on a photo of Krzyzewski? Childish. Stupid. Juvenile.

Almost wonder if the Star did it to grab some attention. This is something straight out the Jackson family rules of PR ... i.e., that there is no such thing as bad PR.