Just got done watching Pitt-Butler, which ended when the Panthers’ Nasir Robinson committed what can best be described as a boneheaded foul to hand the game to the Bulldogs.
Over the ensuing minutes, hours, days, Robinson was be flogged from all corners. From Tweeters who don’t play basketball, from columnists who don’t play basketball, from talk radio boobs who don’t play basketball.
Give the kid a break.
Nasir Robinson is a college junior. As a 6-foot-5 forward, his NBA potential can’t be all that great. He’s a sociology major from Chester, PA. who works hard and is extremely close to his grandmother, Terri. He seems like a nice guy, for whatever that’s worth.
The point is, people make mistakes. Famous people, obscure people, college athletes, college professors. We all screw up, some of us (cough, cough) more than others. Robinson has the misfortune of having screwed up on national TV, in the NCAA Tournament, at the conclusion of an insanely engaging basketball game probably being watched by a couple of million people. His error was, in basketball context, bad—but only in basketball context. He committed a stupid foul. Who hasn’t?
I hurt for this guy, because what’s about to transpire will be brutal—and it’ll stick with him. With the exception of deaths, this will probably go down as the worst day of his life.
So, again, leave him alone. You, the die-hard Pitt fan who lives for college sports (and has no life). You, the drunk college kid thinking about toilet papering his apartment. You. And you. And you. And you. Find something better to do than condemning a kid for making a mistake.
It was just a stupid foul.
