It is fair to say that for most of our lives, no matter who you are, we have all been told that words have consequences. The degree of those consequences do vary, but ultimately there is a certain amount of weight that is behind everything that we say and do. Duke head coach Jon Scheyer should know that, but much like Coach K, he doesn’t seem like he actually cares. He probably should care a little bit, because Orange County DA Jeff Nieman took notice of Scheyer’s comments following the loss to UNC,
and he didn’t forget to bring it up this week.
Nieman took to social media after the game and said that the accusations that Scheyer made were very serious. He stated that anybody who had video evidence of a Duke staff member getting punched in the face should come forward so that an investigation could take place, but as expected, nobody had video. A bit odd that thousands of cameras were present at the game and nobody had video, right? Especially the Duke fan section right behind the bench where there is family, friends, and likely former players? Nobody had one single clip?
Since no evidence came forward, Nieman took to WRAL to discuss what prompted him to speak up on the issue to begin with. Here is what he had to say:
“Multiple intentional violent acts … were implied or stated [or] accused and that’s something I take very seriously,” Nieman said in an interview with WRAL News. “An unprovoked act of aggressive violence is a serious thing, and if that happened, I wanted us to get evidence of it, and if we could prove it, take it to court.”
Nieman added, “This is my attempt to try to dispel … I’m comfortable saying false statement that people were punched at this event, because there’s simply just no evidence of support that anybody was.”
There is one important detail that needs to be mentioned: Nieman is a graduate from UNC, so naturally the elephant in the room is whether or not he had a particular interest in the comments made by Scheyer. Here is what he had to say regarding his alma mater:
“I guess what I’d say is, is that I’ve prosecuted more UNC faculty, staff, administration, students and student-athletes than maybe any other practicing lawyer in this state,” Nieman said. “So, I think that when I say I can be loyal to my alma mater and have a favorite as far as the basketball game, that’s completely separate from when I’m analyzing things as a DA.”
So, while there is a tie to the university, Nieman was very ready to make sure that justice was served on behalf of Duke. Most fans would agree that if a fan is going around punching anybody, they not only be dealt with through the justice system, but they should probably be banned from the Dean E. Smith Center. It doesn’t matter who is committing the act or who is on the receiving end of it: nobody should be punching Duke staff members, period. But there’s no evidence that this even happened, and when Jon Scheyer was asked about Nieman’s comments, here is what he had to say:
“I would like to focus on Syracuse, but I’ll tell you, I know what I saw and I know what happened with our staff after the game, and that’s the bottom line and I’m not going to go and circle back or get into, I don’t know what was said or wasn’t said or what people want to claim, but I know what happened,” Scheyer said. “And, I’m always going to support our staff in those situations, and again, I could’ve even said more and I’m not going to do that, but we’re moving on.
“I’m grateful for tonight’s win, but I don’t want to go back.”
Allow me to translate: “I was extremely mad and salty that we lost and that they stormed the court, so I made up something to distract from the fact that we lost to a team that we had dead to rights for 39 minutes and 59 seconds.”
Scheyer’s attempt to distract from the fact that Duke lost in embarrassing fashion is a play that he’s used out of his playbook before. Remember when Kyle Filipowski got “trampled” on? Allow me to refresh everyone’s memory:
The poor kid couldn’t even get back onto the court a week later because he was injured so badly. Oh wait…
It is simply fascinating that the only time court storming becomes a debate in the sports media world is when it happens to Duke. You’d be surprised how many times it happens through a college basketball season, and yet nobody seems to have any conversations or debates about it. Heck, it even happened to UNC just a couple of days after the Duke game:
How many comments were made by Hubert Davis about someone getting hurt? How often was it discussed by media that court storming was dangerous? Also, how many injuries actually transpired?
Zero. The answer is zero.
The bottom line is this: once Coach K left and Jon Scheyer took over, we knew that he wasn’t going to be completely normal. There’s something about that program that makes coaches say and do out of pocket things that no other coach would. Allowing Grayson Allen to try to injure players, the whole Dillon Brooks situation in the NCAA Tournament, and the countless shenanigans with officials is just the short list of things Coach K was apart of. Scheyer’s schtick is that he will use every court storming moment that happens against Duke to distract from the fact that his team lost. It’s sad, it’s embarrassing, and as the Orange County DA pointed out in this particular instance, it is dangerous. Accusing fans of punching staff members is serious, and to make such claims without evidence can create really bad situations for people. Forget the rivalry stuff: realize the weight of your words as someone who runs one of the best college basketball programs in the country.
That said, he will not learn any lessons, and he will inevitably pull some stuff like this again. But let it be known that unlike him, Carolina fans actually keep plenty of receipts. Like this video from what actually happened after the game:
Have some shame, Jonathan.
