wooden who?

Well kids it's that time of year again. yes that's right, the ncaa basketball tourney is over and only one team is truly satisfied. Unfortunately for yours truly, it is not the team i like. All things considered i was pretty philosophical about the whole thing. (no drinking binges, or cursing screaming tirades) i avoided the week long disconsolate attitude that normally colors my life after a crushing defeat in the tournament. somehow i even bypassed the unbridled rage that comes from seeing Joachim Noah, and his band of classless cohorts, overly celebrating their victory over UCLA. This particular state of mind was a whole new thing for me, and it was a little disconcerting i don't mind saying. where is all this going you might ask? well i wished to establish my current state of mind before i saw the atrocities that forced me to act.
Right smack dab in the middle of my new found (and mostly ignorant) bliss, i was harshly forced back to reality. I was informed that Mr. Noah and his cronies (hereafter referred to as those disrespectful punk kids, or DPK), wore t-shirts before the ucla game that said "Wooden Who". Those little bastards, who do they think they are? Coach Wooden is universally loved. He is respected not only for his coaching prowess, but for his amazing moral fiber. The man had more success coaching, than any coach, of any sport, on any level, but feels that his greatest accomplishments came teaching english. He never talked to his teams about winning or losing. He always told his teams that, if you are satisfied that you give your best effort for yourself and for your teammates then you are a success. He really meant it too. He will never name his favorite players, because he loved them all so much, but the men he lists as his greatest successes are not the men you would expect. They are not the Kareems or the Waltons, they are the players that came to his program troubled, or with attitude problems, and went on to be successful in life. players that never went to the NBA, but became better well rounded men.
Having attended many UCLA basketball games, I have seen first hand the respect, and reverence that everyone gives coach. Understand that when i say everyone, i mean everyone. I have watched opposing teams line up during warm ups, just for a chance to shake the mans hand. Teams that hated UCLA, teams that would fight tooth and nail during the game, all of them hold that man in high regard. No matter how fierce the rivalry between schools, coach was above it. Not because of his coaching records, but because of the man he is. Which brings us back to those disrespectful punk kids, for them to wear those shirts shows an incredible lack of respect, above and beyond the accepted norm. I mean really, we tolerate it when Noah pounds his chest after a routine play. We don't react when he screams and curses for a foul being called against him, no matter how flagrant the violation. We show incredible restraint by not kicking over the table he stands upon, while rubbing his victory in our faces by taunting our fans and blowing kisses at our cheerleaders. We have come to terms with the fact that this generation of athletes are mostly spoiled, self centered, disrespectful, egomaniacs, but these kids top them all.
At first i thought about turning the other cheek. I even wrote a post similar to this. In that post i finished with the sentiment that i wished Mr Noah success in life, but some of us measure success differently. that is, i am sure, what coach thinks when he sees Noahs' childish antics. After further mulling it over, i realized that i am not that good a person. I wish for you and your cohorts MR Noah, that for every time you indulge yourself by engaging in such juvenile antics, you are blessed with pain and misfortune. It is my most fervent hope that you have misery heaped on you in such great amounts that you are forced to look long and hard at yourself you ignorant f#&*. Until the day that you grow up, here's hoping you suffer, you disrespectful punk kid!