The Non-Story That Won’t Go Away

Posted by Brendan Jackson on Nov 5, 2010 1042815 commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fcelticshub.com%2F2010%2F11%2F05%2Fthe-non-story-that-wont-go-away%2FThe+Non-Story+That+Won%27t+Go+Away2010-11-05+04%3A27%3A38Brendan+Jacksonhttp%3A%2F%2Fcelticshub.com%2F%3Fp%3D10428

A high school level “he said, he said” now has everyone saying something.  When the news of this story broke yesterday I did not want anything to do with it.  I was hoping that this story would just go away on its own, but in the days where there’s always an audience for the minutia of some one’s life (re: Twitter) it’s no wonder these things become so much bigger than they really are.

Yesterday, every one’s column arrived at the easy conclusion:  making light of a terrible disease like cancer is wrong.  What does it say about the state of our media, nay, our society that we need a days worth of columns explaining that it’s wrong to tell someone with Alopecia (or anyone for that matter) that they look like they have cancer?

Today, everyone has turned on the Tweeter and for good reason.  There is not one constructive thing that was accomplished by Charlie Villanueva’s Tweet.  Kevin Garnett, Doc Rivers, and Danny Aigne have all vehemntly denied Villanueva’s claim.  As a result, Garnett’s character has now come out of this situation virtually unscathed.  Or should I say, no more scathed than years of chest-beating, trashing talking, “f– your rookies” stories hadn’t done already.

More importantly, the Tweet did not do anything for people struggling with cancer or Alopecia except potentially make them feel bad.  Insert obligatory friend with cancer story:  Today I asked a friend of mine who has just overcome testicular cancer which had metastasize into his lungs and lymph nodes how he felt about this whole situation.  He is now in remission and his hair has just about fully grown back from the chemotherapy.   His response was blunt: “pretty terrible”.

Charlie Villanueva has morphed from victim to villain in twenty-four hours.  Tweeting a transcript of what Garnett supposedly said is petty, immature, and selfish.  Instead of ameliorating a bad situation, directly addressing a poor choice of words, and raising awareness to the fact that words, even meaningless trash talk, have consequences Villanueva’s finding that out first hand.

Numerous NBA players and personalities have commented on this situation from Jeff Van Gundy, to Bucks point guard Brandon Jennings, to T’Wolves forward Anthony Tolliver.  They all seem to be saying the same thing: Why?

Jennings does not understand why Villanueva took it off the court:

“Personally, I don’t think I would have said anything to the media about (trash talk),” he said before the Bucks took on the Celtics. “I know last year me and KG got into it, but I wasn’t going to tweet about it and tell you what he said because that’s nobody’s business.  Out there on the court between the lines is what’s said,” Jennings said. “If I was really that mad, then I would have did what I would have did right then and there instead of putting it out there. Who knows what was said? I wasn’t there, but if I’m that mad and to put it on Twitter and I was ready to fight, then I would have did it right there.” (Boston Globe)

No one doubts Villanueva’s personal struggle with his condition.  Everyone is sympathetic to the fact that Villanueva has had to deal with things like this his whole life.  However, confronting Garnett on Twitter obscures the message.  Villanueva wanted everyone to know that what KG said was not okay.

Despite the denials and the fact that no one else who shared a court with these players the other night is helping Villanueva substantiate this claim I still believe that Garnett probably said it.  Regardless, it’s time for this story to go away and admittedly, I’m not doing anything to help it go away by post.

For that, I apologize.  Garnett should too, just not through social media.