Written by “It takes courage not only to make decisions, but to live with those decisions afterward.” – Coach K
Who is Jalen Johnson?
He’s a top prospect with the Duke Blue Devils who was going to be a “one and done” player from the very start. Great! He’s a 19 year old kid that will soon be in the NBA. You can find him on Twitter JJ (@Jalen_J23) / Twitter or learn more about his basketball prowess on his Wikipedia page here.
Why should you care?
Scathing article written by new St. John’s graduate Kevin Connelly (@KevinConnelly24) / Twitter, who covered sports for four years, paints a picture where Jalen is selfish, bad for Duke from the beginning, and sold his team out by opting out of the 20-21 season.
Discuss.
What does Jalen Johnson owe Duke? Nothing in short. Duke knew from the beginning that Jalen was most likely going to be gone after this season. This was a risk they were willing to take. Regardless of the college, Jalen Johnson is only there for one year anyway. Why would he jeopardize his imminent NBA career by playing hurt through a season where Duke isn’t really that good? Connelly painted a picture where the headline read “…cowardly opts out of season.” Hey Kevin, have you ever had millions of dollars on the line with an upcoming draft? Jalen is 19 years old and is doing what is in his best interest to secure a future for himself and his family long term. If this clashes with your “Durham Ball” mentality where Duke must be cutting down the nets every year, Jalen does not care. Let’s just put this in perspective. Recent college grad with zero playing experience calls out top upcoming NBA prospect for making a business decision.
Why do “journalists”, if that’s what Kevin considers himself at this point, get to take shots at young kids who are making long term decisions? “Missed four weeks with a foot injury which was called into question”, “off court issues” with no actual source or backing are borderline slanderous and obviously destroying a player’s character with zero repercussions for writing the “article”.
How does an organization deal with something where one of their top players is doing what is best for himself and not the team? They support him as they would any other player on the team. There are more players on the team, and if an option is offered and player takes it, then the team, media, and coaches should control the narrative that’s coming out of their camp. As of this writing I haven’t seen a defense of Jalen’s decision from Duke or Coach K, but believe me that if someone is writing awful things about one of my players I’d address this head on. Keyboard warriors are all over the place today where it’s apparently okay to publish libel with zero actual evidence and the media runs with it.
Good for you Jalen Johnson! Good luck in the NBA, and don’t let any beat writer’s criticism of you stop you from achieving your goals.