Beware the Ides of March ... and progressive sports media! Especially if you're a college basketball coach looking for an edge by needling an opposing player. Cal-Irvine's coach razzed an Oregon player during an NCAA basketball tournament game Sunday, Michigan State's coach got extremely angry at one of his own players, and hysterical snowflake writers are complaining that homophobes and toxic males are ruining March Madness.
As Outsports' writer Cyd Zeigler explains it: "When (head coach) Russell Turner lead his UC-Irvine men’s basketball team into an NCAA tournament matchup against the Oregon Ducks, he decided he was going to use sexist and homophobic taunts to rattle opposing player Louis King." In a story update, Zeigler wrote: "UC-Irvine men’s basketball coach Russell Turner resorted to homophobia and sexism in his premeditated plan to taunt a teenager on the Univ. of Oregon basketball team ahead of his team’s second-round NCAA tournament game."
USA Today's Nancy Armour writes that Turner (appearing in above photo) demeaned women, gays and his school. The 48-year-old misogynist used all the maturity of an 8-year-old to get an edge, she adds. And being in the position of passing on his bigotry to his players is unacceptable.
Those are the talking points of the LGBT flag-wavers. How did Irvine's coach commit these so-called "crimes against humanity"?
Throughout the game, Coach Turner called Oregon's King "Queen," a play on his name in hopes of irritating him and adversely impacting his play. He encouraged his players to do the same thing. It didn't work so well though because King scored 16 points and helped the Ducks win handily. After the game, Turner congratulated the Oregon player on a game well played, and he explained his tactic to the press:
“I was saying `double team Queen’ to try to see if I could irritate him. And I did. And I kept talking to my team about what we wanted to do. We were calling him queen, because I knew it might irritate him.”
That Oregon player portrayed by media as a victim is 6-foot-9, and he proved more than capable of engaging the Irvine coach and his team in ongoing banter during the game. He was hardly in need of any hand-holding by slobbering, overly sensitive PC media using him to promote an agenda.
This is called "trash talking" and it's a regular part of basketball. It's only newsworthy when it offends the delicate sensitivities of LGBT pressure groups and their media lackeys who are looking for any excuse to avoid sticking to sports. It's hypocritical as heck, too. The LGBT crowd has been slinging hatred ever since the NCAA Tournament began last week. Christian teams Abilene Christian and Liberty were denigrated by Outsports and Deadspin for the past few days. Christian athletes are labeled "homophobic bigots"; see retired baseball player Lance Berkman, who once supported a bathroom bill in Houston, and Outsports figuratively aimed for his head with the none-too-kind insult of "intolerant bigot."
From his imagined moral high ground, Zeigler blames Turner for doing absolutely nothing "to acknowledge the harm words like his cause gay, bisexual, trans and queer boys and young men, some of whom may be on his team or coaching staff, on the Oregon team or staff, or fans who had to endure his nonsense." That's a lot of unconfirmed maybe's.
Even Jemele Hill jumped into the middle of this story, through her usual attack vehicle, Twitter:
"Ain't it, chief"? Hill had to drag President Donald Trump into this.
Progressive media finally got their man, though, inducing this apology from Turner:
"I would like to address my post-game comments. I recognize my actions were inappropriate and insensitive. I share UC Irvine’s belief that inclusivity and diversity are paramount values, and I apologize for not understanding that my actions during the game suggested otherwise."
Turner said he spoke to King and his parents and they accepted his apology. But the crisis-manufacturing progressive media keeps on milking an opportunity to hype the LGBT narrative for all it's worth.
Armour's colleague Chris Korman, of USA Today's For the Win blog, wrote "Turner, like (Michigan State coach Tom) Izzo before him, did far more to ruin the early rounds. ..." of March Madness. Izzo had been restrained from going after his freshman player Aaron Henry earlier in the NCAA Tournament. But if anything is spoiling the March Madness experience, it's the "woke" sports media increasingly pushing for social justice and LGBT causes while marginalizing insensitive, knuckle-dragging sports figures suspected of "toxic masculinity."
