Author Archives: Kent Sterling

Indiana Basketball – Let’s try to be like Slick; Brunk gone from IU, so 3 out, 3 in; Pacers lose!

Indiana Basketball – Pacers icon, IU national champ “Slick” Leonard dies; Joey Brunk leaving IU for final year

Indiana Basketball – Joey Brunk leaving the basketball program

Joey Brunk is leaving the Indiana University basketball program.

Brunk has had a strange college basketball career, not at all what was projected as he graduated from Southport High School, south of Indianapolis.  It began at Butler where he played and studied for his first three seasons and continued at IU for the last two after he transferred.

The beginning at Butler was marred by his father’s death, and the final year at IU was over before it began because of a back injury.  The bonus year of eligibility as a response to COVID allows Brunk a sixth year, which he will use elsewhere, can be a valedictory lap that hopefully wraps his career with a joyous bow.

Fans prone to anger over players leaving a program should press pause on their discontent in Brunk’s case.  He’s dealt with tremendous adversity throughout what he expected to be a happy period of his life.  It didn’t work out that way, so let’s allow him to leave IU for another opportunity without the usual rancorous protests.

This leaves Indiana with a roster of 11 scholarship players.  Because Brunk’s scholarship was extended due to a COVID exemption, Indiana’s limit is reduced from 14 to 13, and the number of scholarships available remains at two.

He tweeted the following message of thanks:

Indiana Pacers fans will welcome Paul George back to town with boos – as they should

Paul George publicly declaring his hope to lead the Pacers to a championship was trumped by his concurrent desire to be traded.

Some cities vibe will self-important duplicitous athletes.  Indianapolis is not one of them.

Paul George evolved during his time as an Indiana Pacers from humble rookie who wanted to fit in with his new teammates and city into a diva who created his own nickname and embraced his brand as more valuable than his relationship with the team or fans.

He returns tonight to the building that served as his home arena for the first seven years of his career, and he will hear boos.  That’s unusual for an athlete returning to Indianapolis.  Lance Stephenson, Antonio Davis, Peyton Manning, Mark Jackson, Edgerrin James, and many others received warm welcomes when they came back to the place where they started their professional careers.  George will never enjoy that kind of ovation.

People will misjudge the boos as the reaction of fans disenchanted with a player who rejected their team and city.  It’s actually the response to the lies George told on his way out the door.  The truth was never more important to George than how the message would be received.  He said what he thought people wanted to hear, misjudging the importance of honor and trust.

“I am all about trying to make this team better,” George said at the Caroline Symmes Celebrity Softball Challenge on June 15, 2017.  “I want that ring. I need some help to get that accomplished.  I’m a Pacer.  There’s no way around that. This is my team, my group, and this is where I’m at… It’s all about bringing a championship to Indiana.”

Two weeks later, the Pacers accomodated George’s request to be traded.  He went to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Victor Oladipo and Domas Sabonis.  Since then, he made a similar pledge to remain in OKC before being dealt again to his hometown Los Angeles Clippers.

Pacers fans would have understood if at the softball game, George said, “Look, I love and appreciate Indianapolis, but it has always been my dream to play in my hometown.  When I am a free agent, I am going to pursue a deal in LA.  I would love to finish my contract here, but if the Pacers can get a solid deal for me, I’m good with that.  Indy and the Pacers will always be close to my heart, but I want to play in my hometown.”

That would have been an honest expression of George’s career desire.  People would have been disappointed, but understood.  People from Indianapolis know what it is like to love their hometown and would have empathized with George’s desire to indulge that dream, but telling the truth in a way people will understand is not George’s way.  The truth is not a priority with him.  He says what he believes people want to hear regardless of what he knows to be true.

Indy is not butt-hurt over George’s desire to go home to play in more familiar environs.  People in Indiana are honest by nature, and they respect those who share their penchant for the truth.

And so tonight at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, George will be booed – not his desire to go home, but for his lies.

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Indiana Basketball – Is it possible to be happy for Armaan Franklin as he leaves IU for Virginia?

Let’s try to be happy for Armaan Franklin as he transfers to Virgina rather than bitter about his departure from IU.

Armaan Franklin decided to leave Indiana Basketball to play and study at the University of Virginia, and I don’t blame him.

Fans lose their minds when a student-athlete transfers as though it represents an abandonment of all that is holy.  That’s especially true at a place like Indiana.  IU fans look at the opportunity to play for the Hoosiers as a higher calling – a chance to represent the program of Leonard, Bellamy, Knight, May, Buckner, Benson, Woodson, Thomas, Alford, Cheaney, Jeffries, Gordon, Watford, Hulls, Oladipo, Ferrell, and Anunoby.

While being a part of that illustrious fraternity is nice, it’s not the equal of getting a degree from the university Thomas Jefferson founded and designed.  And let’s remember that despite excitement over the Mike Woodson hire, Thad Matta‘s addition to the staff, and Dane Fife coming home, it has been 34 years since IU hung a real banner.  UVA won a National Championship in 2019.

It would have been nice to see what Indiana might have done with Franklin as exactly the type of player Woodson claimed to covet during his Zoom introduction to the media – long and versatile defender who can knock down threes.  Franklin isn’t the dynamic athlete that puts a program over the top, but he is the kind of young man and player that teams cannot win without.

The deal is done, and if Franklin hopes to follow in the footsteps of Pacers guard Malcom Brogdon as a player and man, where better to do that than at his alma mater?

Sane Indiana fans, to the extent they exist, will understand this decision and harbor no ill will toward Franklin.  He’s a good player and guy who made a decision that many would envy given the same circumstances.

I hope transferring to Virginia makes all of Franklin’s dreams come true – minus an NCAA Championship at Indiana’s expense.

 

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