"Duke Boy" Gets It Right

I'm not a fan of Jay Bilas. He's not nearly as bad as Dick Vitale, but occasionally he can show favoritism towards certain schools, which drives me up the wall. He played at Duke, and you probably have figured out that Duke is far from being a team I cheer for. However, I will be the first person to tell you that you can get a solid education at Duke University. They provide a good education for a non-Ivy League Private institution. Case in point of them providing a good education: The events of the past week when Jay Bilas weighed in on the "Billy Donovan: I'm Leaving Florida for the Orlando Magic, no just kidding saga." Here's what Jay Bilas had to say:

First of all, I think the world of Billy. I like him very much; he's a wonderful person. But I've never seen anything this unprofessional. Is it going to hurt him? Absolutely. It goes right to the very heart of his ability to make an important decision. There's no question this was an unprofessional way to handle this. There's no reasonable excuse. It's understandable if you can't make up your mind in a certain time frame. To take the step to agree to a contract and be introduced at a press conference and put people through this without having thought this through, there's no excuse. I understand nobody likes to move or pick kids up and change schools and leave a great job. But this is big-boy school now. Most people think this stuff through before hand to make sure. That's why they call it a contract.

If you read my blog with any regularity, you know I'm not a fan of the Florida Gators either. Still a great educational institution, but not a fan of their sports programs. I do, however, have experience with unprofessional coaches on behalf of Dennis Franchione's exit from Alabama to coach Texas A&M. It's definitely no fun being in that situation as a fan, so last week when Billy Donovan was introduced and signed a contract as the new head coach of the Orlando Magic, I could sympathize with the Gator faithful since Donovan had made every indication that he planned to be back next season complete with contract extension awaiting his signature on his desk.

Then the tables turned and I sympathize even more with the Orlando Magic. I'm sure some out there are of the opinion that you really can't say "Poor NBA Team" with a straight face, but at the very core of all of this is the inherent knowledge that the Magic had found their man. Their search was over, and Florida even seemed to have started putting the feelers out to at least one head coach as a replacement. So, all parties involved were moving forward into the future, except one: Billy Donovan.

He decided that he'd jump in a time machine and try to make what happened the week before disappear. You can't do that without some ramifications. You just can't. It's just not right. So...yeah...life isn't fair. I get that...believe me...I get that. But life also shouldn't be one where you can do whatever you want without it affecting people especially you. That's just immature, unprofessional, and plain evil. So he can't coach for any NBA team for the next 5 years. So what...I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a NBA team that could trust him enough to offer him a job EVER in the future. Sources say Donovan agreed to the 5 year ban to show recruits that he was committed to Florida. Here's a thought...perhaps you could have just stayed at Florida, signed the contract extension, and turned down the Orlando Magic to begin with...that probably would have shown just as much commitment to the recruits.

I just feel like he got off with no consequences really. He made a decision that affected a lot of people. If you make decisions that affect only you, then you face those consequences alone. But if you make decisions that affect other people in the process, then you're not facing it alone and you should have to face whatever consequences the other affected parties deem appropriate. Receiving a 6 year, $21 million contract with an option on the 7th year after you've signed a 5 year ban in the NBA is not facing consequences. That's having everything handed to you on a silver platter. Makes it a little sketchy to me as if he used the Orlando Magic to sweeten the pot on his contract extension with the Gators.

I know there are Florida fans out there who are going to disagree with me wholeheartedly, and you're perfectly entitled to do so. That's why they call them opinions. But hopefully once the smoke has cleared and you're all down from Cloud 9 that you've got your beloved coach back, you'll see the true reality of how Billy Donovan played the entire communities of the Florida Gators and the Orlando Magic. It's just plain not cool for him to go back to everything being normal without more consequences than the 5 year ban.