I’ve read two interesting articles this week on Tyler Hansbrough and have to wonder myself why anyone could dislike what is apparently the epitome of a college basketball role model. Both articles provide good perspective and balance, but Tyler deserves all that he has worked so hard to be and stands as a model of desire, effort and results. Take a read:

CBS Article: Hating Hansbrough is strange … understanding why even stranger
Summary Quote:

If your favorite school signed a prospect in November, wouldn’t you hope that prospect would stay four years, earn a degree, keep out of trouble and smash records? Wouldn’t that be the perfect scenario? Of course it would! And really, that’s all Hansbrough has done. But somehow he’s still become the object of hate, for whatever reason.

Yahoo Article: Why fans dislike Tyler Hansbrough: A treatise in one blog post
Summary Quote:

But that really doesn’t get to the heart of the matter. The real reason why people loathe Tyler Hansbrough is much simpler, much less psychological. People dislike Tyler Hansbrough because the media loves him.

If you watch ESPN or even CBS, you know it’s true. Dick Vitale loves him. Digger Phelps loves him. Everyone loves him. It has been dogmatically accepted for about three years that Hansbrough is the best big man in the college game, that he’s one of the best college players of all-time, that he has no flaws in his game and so on. This hyperbole knows no bounds. And of course Vitale is the worst offender; even as his supporters admit that Hansbrough’s game likely isn’t suited for the NBA, Vitale uses broadcast time to dare NBA teams to pass on the player. It’s insane.

I agree with both points of view, but what really matters is what Tyler wants.  He wants to be as good as he possibly can be.  It’s that desire, and the work to achieve it, that seem to have overcome his lack of grace, skill or talent.  He wasn’t born to be a great basketball player..but he has proven that desire plus effort can make you a legend, despite your skill-level!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 10th, 2009 at 12:53 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.