Recently, Cal's picked up the recruiting heat on guard Emmanuel Owootoah, who has a name that would just be a blast to chant at Rupp. However, Owootoah and his classmate, both transfer students from Canada currently playing in Cordia, KY, have had to deal with the ugly side of basketball over the last couple weeks.
No, not agents or AAU. Rather,
flat-out racism and rage fueled hate mongering, which is giving the state an awful name. Something that was only a
local story on Lex 18 a couple days ago has now caught the attention of national media members, and if it continues, it's only a matter of time before this handful of clowns make the entire state look even worse than some people already perceive it.
Adam Zagoria, New York-based basketball and Big East blogger,
mentioned it in his blog the other day. Jeff Borzello, writer for CBS Sports, acknowledged it in a tweet.
The two boys have been subjected to not just harsh chants, but other harassment as well; and not all of it based strictly on nationality. The principal of this school is in a hard spot, no question, but so far hasn't done anything to reprimand those responsible for chants of "USA-USA," which by themselves aren't bad.
Paired with sending images of a Canadian flag with a noose edited in, though, the "patriotic" chant no longer seems so wholesome. The guardians for Owootoah and his teammate, Marlon King, have reported multiple attacks, and gunshots fired at their door.
This situation puts the principal in a hard spot, no question, but so far his current strategy of "doing nothing" doesn't seem to be winning him much favor.
If this is Owootoah's experience with Kentucky, why in the world would he want to stay in the state for college? And even more than being a recruiting disadvantage, this is just an example of how boneheaded some folks can be. Hopefully the situation is handled better going forward than it has been to this point.
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