You hear this criticism/complaint quite frequently in the sports world, and college basketball is no exception. So-and-so isn't hustling, so-and-so is being lazy, etc. It seems like the player for Purdue who gets this leveled at them the most is Hammons. He's expected to be really aggressive, so I guess it comes naturally to call him lazy if he's not being as aggressive as we'd like.
I'm a Cleveland Indians fan, and currently reading a book on the Tribe teams of the 90s-- Glory Days in Tribe Town-- co-written by Cleveland Plain Dealer sports writer Terry Pluto, and Indians play-by-play broadcaster Tom Hamilton. Something that Hamilton said in the book really struck me. He was talking about Cleveland Hall of Famer Herb Score who did the play-by-play for the Indians before Hamilton, and with him for a while.
One thing that Score told Hamilton is that he would never call a player out for what looked like a lack of hustle. Because "you never knew what was going on with that player." Having such a longstanding and good relationship with the Indians as first a player, and then a sports caster, Score had plenty of inside knowledge of the organization and players, and had personally known of times where a player was dealing with some minor nagging injury, but was toughing it out and trying to play through it. A lot of time for minor injuries like that, it never becomes public knowledge. One possible reason is because you wouldn't want the opposing team's battery to know that you aren't a threat to steal. Another is that a lot of these players genuinely are tough and don't think such a small injury is worth discussing publicly. But the point is, we just might not know. And despite insider info, Score didn't always know either. So he made a conscious decision never to call a player out for "being lazy" on the air.
I enjoyed reading that, and felt a little convicted with the way that I speak about players sometimes. Again, it seems like Hammons is the one that gets this particular criticism a lot, but applies across the board too. With Hammons, unfortunately I feel like the laziness stereotype has been exacerbated by the look on his face. One of my non-Purdue friends described Hammons as "always looking like he just got out of bed..."
Anyways, just some food for thought.
I'm a Cleveland Indians fan, and currently reading a book on the Tribe teams of the 90s-- Glory Days in Tribe Town-- co-written by Cleveland Plain Dealer sports writer Terry Pluto, and Indians play-by-play broadcaster Tom Hamilton. Something that Hamilton said in the book really struck me. He was talking about Cleveland Hall of Famer Herb Score who did the play-by-play for the Indians before Hamilton, and with him for a while.
One thing that Score told Hamilton is that he would never call a player out for what looked like a lack of hustle. Because "you never knew what was going on with that player." Having such a longstanding and good relationship with the Indians as first a player, and then a sports caster, Score had plenty of inside knowledge of the organization and players, and had personally known of times where a player was dealing with some minor nagging injury, but was toughing it out and trying to play through it. A lot of time for minor injuries like that, it never becomes public knowledge. One possible reason is because you wouldn't want the opposing team's battery to know that you aren't a threat to steal. Another is that a lot of these players genuinely are tough and don't think such a small injury is worth discussing publicly. But the point is, we just might not know. And despite insider info, Score didn't always know either. So he made a conscious decision never to call a player out for "being lazy" on the air.
I enjoyed reading that, and felt a little convicted with the way that I speak about players sometimes. Again, it seems like Hammons is the one that gets this particular criticism a lot, but applies across the board too. With Hammons, unfortunately I feel like the laziness stereotype has been exacerbated by the look on his face. One of my non-Purdue friends described Hammons as "always looking like he just got out of bed..."
Anyways, just some food for thought.
