Behind the NYT paywall, Harvey Araton writes about Coach K and the Duke lacrosse case.
Typically a ubiquitous sermonizer on the choices young people make...He has been conspicuously absent from the national discourse and noticeably scarce around campus, according to a Duke professor I know. Nor, apparently, has Krzyzewski provided his 2006 recruiting class his take, on what, if anything, he believes has gone wrong at Duke.
More: Krzyzewski knows that the university has had a reduction in student acceptances for next fall's incoming freshman class. He no doubt recognizes that in a case fraught with class and racial implications, the last thing he needs — despite some calls from within the Duke and Durham, N.C., communities for him to be heard — is to risk being misinterpreted as a cheerleader for either side, most notably for a lacrosse program that was described by a Duke official in 2005 as "building toward a train wreck."
In staying quiet, the erudite Coach K has proved, like a great point guard dribbling out of the backcourt, to have the intuitive capacity to recognize and avoid a trap...That is the only position a basketball coach who has achieved fame for himself and a fortune for his family in large part by luring black talent can take if he intends to keep his program on its figurative pedestal.
Kicker: Good for him for lowering his profile, for letting the system work, but isn't it interesting how self-interest is the greatest motivation for being a silent voice of reason?
Self-interest rightly understood - I wish more had exercised similar judgement. But the perspective is lost just as with missing white girls.
Posted by: pfknc | Jun 02, 2006 at 08:39 PM