I have had absolutely enough of this young man named Antoine Davis.
Totally enough. Pipe down, young fella. Zip it.
I’m not going to go all get-off-my-lawn on you or anything, but he is a precise and complete microcosm of what’s wrong with the “everyone gets a trophy” epidemic running rampant through some younger generations.
He’s also a young man who comes off sounding like the world owes him something --- when it owes him zero.
Davis is a highly skilled and successful basketball player who just wrapped up his college career at Detroit-Mercy by scoring a boatload of points. He poured in 3,664 over his illustrious career to be exact or, another way to look at it is three fewer points than NCAA record-holder Pete Maravich. At LSU, Maravich scored an almost-unfathomable 3,667 way back in three seasons between 1967 and 1970; and he did it without a shot clock or a three-point line which makes it one of the most astonishing feats in sports history. Pistol Pete pumped in 43.8, 44.2 and 44.5 points on average during his three seasons (freshmen were ineligible then) to average 44.2 points overall for the Tigers.
Damn.
Anyhow, back to Davis who had an end of a career that spiked a gigantic controversy --- and one in which he ended up looking foolish.
Davis’ team finished at 14-19 and, even before the lower-tiered postseason college basketball tournaments had gone through their selection processes, the rumblings started.
Some felt it prudent --- in the ultimate case of rigging the system and showcasing an individual in a team sport --- to invite Detroit-Mercy to the CBI postseason tournament so that Davis could very easily get his four points, and then some, and almost-certainly go down as the all-time leading scorer in college basketball history.
Some felt it prudent Davis and his squad had no business in the CBI, and they made their feelings known as well.
Luckily and smartly, the people running the CBI agreed with the people who used sound and sensible logic --- something society seems to be running short on these days.
A team at 14-19 wasn’t deserving of a postseason bid, no matter how low-level the tournament or high-powered a player they had.
That was the end of that, right?
Nope.
Davis took to the press and crowed about it. He had the audacity and boldness to play victim in all of this.
“I'm upset about it,” Davis exclaimed to the Associated Press. “I feel like I got cheated out of something that they can't ever give back to me. I think it's selfish, and weird, that people emailed or called the CBI to say we shouldn't be in the tournament because they didn't want me to break the record.”
Cheated?
Know who would have been cheated? Pete Maravich if Davis would have been permitted to play in some flimsily-arranged game for no other reason than to allow him to break a longstanding scoring record.
Good on the CBI. And good on the people who stood in the way.
I don’t wish any ill-will on Davis. What a fantastic player and prolific scorer. Being No. 2 is an incredible accomplishment. Be satisfied with that.
Now pipe down and keep it moving.