Hope This Is The Last...



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    I hope this is the last negative headlines for the Lawson brothers.

    Kansas transfer K.J. Lawson caught on video ripping, cursing Tubby Smith

    The last time I witnessed national media so negative towards Kansas was after Larry Brown won the championship. We have been targeted all year.



  • @drgnslayr Very trying times for heralded coaches who head up topnotch Division 1 sports programs. Bill Self looks to be constantly barraged with public misdeeds of his players. He and his staff, the university, donors and fans can live with only so much serious distraction. Societal situation, I suppose. Just kick and lash out, bray feelings recklessly, broadcast to anyone who will listen, “I am important, attend to what I do and say!” There is a deeprooted sense of carelessness or powerlessness in a gifted young man who will kick a girl in the face, or stomp a few thousand dollars of damage into a girl’s vehicle while she is behind the wheel, or who will bray obscenities to a coach whose program he has just deserted. Then I read national headlines reporting congressmen, senators, top echelon national political and military leaders acting and speaking just as acrimoniously. Some disgusting stuff abounds, in the not so humble opinion of this octogenarian.



  • @REHawk as Bill Self repeated at the banquet, the media did not have the true facts. I feel pretty strongly that vick did not kick a gal in the face! I think he would be in jail if that happened. Please know that since SZ asked mr Calvert to discuss the facts AFTER his daughter signed a release so they could talk openly he has not been eager to pursue further action. That is huge!



  • @REHawk Exactly right. Either that, or they’re just punks.



  • @Crimsonorblue22 Aw, I must admit that sometimes I am a guy who grumbles too loudly about the size of the hole in a donut! Perhaps I have just assumed erroneously that Vick got himself placed on some kind of KU sanctions over a year ago by his interactions with a female student. Then the Josh kicking frenzy, well, the girl’s family might just be waiting to read the size of JJ’s NBA contractual agreement before deciding the measures toward possible recompense? Or maybe Vick will sue the girl for tossing the drink in his face…who knows? His eye for the basket could do with a bit of improvement his 3rd year in uniform. Perhaps tomorrow we will read that Tubby precipitated the Lawson outburst by accusing the kid of wearing a sock to pad the crotch of his game shorts? Topsy turvy world which I kinda get a kick out of discovering and responding to. I am reminded fondly of a deceased former friend, a school administrator, who annually declared to his faculty, “We’ve got the opening day of school and the closing day of the school year; and anything which falls in between is really inconsequential!” This fella died way too early, but it certainly wasn’t from the cause of a twisted colon!



  • @REHawk well put! The media doesnt do us any favors. They love that emotional churn! I’ve been amused by the label of hypocrisy and its valuation over the last couple decades. In the 90s hypocrisy felt like a serious condemnation. Now with the accelerated rate of change and the explosion of information it would require isolation and fiercely stubborn deliberation not to have changing opinions.



  • I think we live in a world of “gotcha media.” Kansas and Bill Self have been making headlines for a while now on the quality of Jayhawk basketball, so we appear on the radar, even back east. Now, given the chance, they really enjoy bashing us.

    The only real news in this story is “Kansas transfer.” Pull that out, and you can find these exact same stories every day on Twitter and other social media.

    Maybe I should think a bit more like Donald Trump; all media is good media.



  • @approxinfinity I refuse to not be apathetic about stubborn people with rapidly changing opinions.



  • @mayjay man. I wasn’t even thinking about politicians. Do you think our macro social (Facebook induced) perspective and media spin perspective on hypocrisy has lagged behind reality, thus creating an increasing rift between public and private personas? Might this rift escalate personality disorders in American presidents?



  • @approxinfinity said in Hope This Is The Last...:

    Might this rift escalate personality disorders in American presidents?

    Surely so. Future US Presidents will have to be uber-conscious about social media and their popularity.

    Trump is into this and I think it was the difference in the election. It made the perception with voters look at him like he was always involved and transparent, even though he really wasn’t.

    I think the days of having a President “go invisible” for long periods is over.

    My goodness… the world has become a super sensitive place to exist on.

    This bleeds into sports, too. I wouldn’t mind seeing Bill become even more “public”… especially since he is so darn good in front of the media! We should better exploit that.



  • I didn’t mean this thread to be a bash on our Lawson brothers. Just want to shed light.

    I think Bill and our staff can help the entire Lawson family better manage the media in the future. This is crucial to the success of the entire family. No more airing dirty laundry directly to the public.

    Make no mistake about it… this is a “franchise family” holding all kinds of talent that will find their way to the league some day.



  • @drgnslayr no no no! Coach is great cause he’s so good at keeping his mouth shut and keeping his foot out of it- unlike others. Once it’s out there, you can’t undo.



  • @approxinfinity This Board, a neighborhood board, and passively looking at close (i.e., real) friends posts on Facebook are my only social media connections outside texting family and doctors.

    The social media world has passed me by as surely as computer games left me in the dust of the Microsoft Solitaire age.

    Hypocrisy, however, has always existed and lives in the evil in people’s hearts. All of what we see in social media are windows into those hearts. To paraphrase, “By their ravings ye shall know them.”

    Back to my incipient dementia…



  • @mayjay so would your definition of hypocrisy be the deliberate attempt to deceive by presenting duplicitous opinions? Not to be confused with the presentation of duplicitous opinions over a course of time, however short, where the individual expressing the opinion has changed his mind, possibly due to the exposure to new facts and opinions?

    Can a line be drawn between the two? Or are they indivisible?

    I’d argue that attempting to evolve one’s opinion to stay in line with one’s moral code could be noble, while changing one’s opinion to leverage social media could be evil, but the ability to discern the difference might be more difficult that one would hope. If the individual expressing the opinion believes he falls in the former group, is he exonerated of all evil, though he surely falls in the latter group as well?



  • @approxinfinity You appear to be talking about just “lying”, which is saying one thing when you think something else is true. I agree that is very different from simply changing one’s mind.

    I always understood hypocrisy to mean upholding a strict moral code while not being faithful to it: it’s the opposite of “practice what you preach”.

    Hypocrisy is about our acts versus our words, not just our opinions.


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