I blame Grayson Allen but also feel badly for him.
I hope that makes sense.
Let me explain.
I blame him because every bit of this is absolutely his fault. He's the one tripping opposing players -- three times now in a 25-game stretch. He's the one who broke down on the sideline. He's the one who has created a massive distraction for the nation's preseason No. 1 team. He did this to himself. He deserves his suspension.
But I also feel badly for him.
Because I can't imagine he's out there actually intentionally tripping players -- especially not when he had to know the headlines doing such would create. The way Allen fell apart on the bench, live on national television, suggested he knew he had just done the one thing he knew he could not do, and I don't think he was worried about a suspension as much as he was bothered by the fact that the latest incident cemented his legacy.
Yes, this is Grayson Allen's legacy now.
He'll never get away from it.
He can lead Duke to a national title, get the second ring of his college career, enter the NBA Draft, be selected in the first round, flourish as a professional and ... folks will be making tripping jokes the whole time. This will never go away. It will be part of his story forever. Just like Luis Suarez is known for biting as much as he's known for being a great goal scorer, and Draymond Green is known for kicking as much as he's known for being a terrific two-way player on a record-setting team, Grayson Allen will be labeled a tripper always.
And that sucks.
But it's also fair because, again, Grayson Allen did this to himself.
And why?
I'm not a psychologist, so I won't even try to pretend to know what's going on with Allen. But something is clearly going on with Allen. I watch basketball every night. I never see players just straight trip other players. But I have, like everybody else, seen Allen do it three times now. And I refuse to believe it's literally intentional -- meaning there's just no way Allen is actually thinking, "OK, I'm about to trip this dude for real."
It's just something that ... happens.
It's just something he ... does.
I don't know why he does it. But he clearly can't stop. So that has to be addressed. And Allen probably won't, and shouldn't, return to games until somebody in authority genuinely feels he's a different person and player. Because this has to stop. If it takes two weeks, fine. If it takes two months, fine. Whatever it takes is what it'll take. But Grayson Allen can't be back in uniform until something changes. And, now that I'm thinking about it, I'm not even sure how anybody would determine such a thing.
It's a complicated deal.
Either way, the good news is that Selection Sunday is March 12. So there's plenty of time to sort through things because almost nothing that happens between now and then will have a major impact on whether Duke wins the national championship. Just like it wasn't important for Harry Giles to start the season as long as he finished it, it's not important for Grayson Allen to play next week as much as it's important for him to fix what needs to be fixed and be ready for the NCAA Tournament.
I wish him luck.
