My note to Penn State men’s basketball Coach Pat Chambers — from a coach of young athletes for more than 30 years. “Why would you ever use that word with a young black athlete?”
Pat Chambers, AP photo
… a puzzling approach by a veteran coach
[First, though I am a Penn State graduate, I have not been following men’s basketball much for many years. This piece, though, has more to do with dealing with human beings than with coaching.]
Penn State coach Pat Chambers to star freshman Rasir Bolton in January 2019:
“I want to be a stress reliever for you. You can talk to me about anything. I need to get some of this pressure off you.
I want to loosen the noose that’s around your neck.”
The Undefeated, July 6, 2020
Pat Chambers is now the ex-men’s basketball coach at Penn State after he resigned on Wednesday. Chambers has done a reasonably good job bringing the Nittany Lions into respectability over his nine years at the helm.
The program has never achieved long-term success, so it is a tough job. However, he worked his way up through the Div. I coaching ranks after having played Div. II basketball. He became the associate head coach at Villanova, then head coach at Boston University, and then at Penn State.
Chambers appears to be a decent man, albeit one with a little bit of a temper that has gotten him into trouble in the past. A Catholic, he says that he reads the scriptures and tries to incorporate them into his life.
How, then, could he be so clueless as to utter the one sentence that probably more than anything else resulted in his being pushed out as coach of the Nittany Lions?
An article in The Undefeated in July detailed what happened to a young freshman player on Chambers’ team who happened to be black and became offended by what his coach said to him.
“The Undefeated” article
Rasir Bolton was a very talented point guard from Virginia who had worked his way into the starting lineup early in his college career in 2018-19.
Then, a series of events changed that season dramatically for the young man, and he asked to transfer soon after the season ended.
The Undefeated’s Jesse Washington explained the background of the infamous conversation,
It began as a normal conversation. Rasir Bolton, the freshman starting point guard for Penn State’s basketball team, was working out with the shooting machine on an off day. The gym was mostly empty. Head coach Pat Chambers called Bolton over to talk.
It was January 2019, and the team was in a troubled state. Four days earlier, during a loss at Michigan, Chambers became enraged during a timeout and shoved one of his players in the chest.
The moment was caught on national television. Chambers apologized and was suspended for the next game, a 19-point home loss to Wisconsin. Bolton shot poorly against Wisconsin and finished with seven points, five assists and two turnovers.
The day after the Wisconsin game, Chambers told Bolton he knew the freshman was under a lot of pressure and wanted to help him. Bolton recalls Chambers, who was on the hot seat due to the suspension and a 7-8 record at that point in the season, saying, “I want to be a stress reliever for you. You can talk to me about anything. I need to get some of this pressure off you.
“I want to loosen the noose that’s around your neck.”
Jesse Washington, “Noose comment by Penn State basketball coach
points to larger NCAA problem,” The Undefeated,” July 6, 2020
The player whom Chambers shoved was Myles Dread, who just happened to be Bolton’s roommate and a friend from his youth. That certainly exacerbated the situation.
Where did “the noose” comment emanate from in that conversation?
I never coached at the Div. I level, though as a journalist I covered both Div. I and Div. II athletics. However, what I know is that if Chambers had stopped after saying this,
I need to get some of this pressure off you,
all of us as coaches could have related to it. I coached both young men and young women, and sometimes, finding the right word is difficult.
In coaching young women in track and field, I learned that words that were common among guys could be perceived differently by girls and young women. I used to say that girls cried when they won and cried when they lost, but that guys really had to be hurt for them to cry.
However, that may have been sexist. The emotional turmoil of young athletes, whether in high school, small college, or Div. I college, is the same.
That is why I am trying to determine why Chambers even brought up the idea of a “noose” in a conversation with a black athlete.
Chambers says that he does not know where the word came from in his background,
Chambers began our 30-minute Zoom call by saying, “I think it’s important for you to know I love my players, man. I love my players and I care about my players. I’m a faithful man. I listen to the Scripture, I live in the Scripture on a daily basis.” He said he didn’t know a noose reference would hurt Bolton.
I asked, “How could you not know?”
“I don’t even know where it came from,” Chambers said. “It’s not a word that’s in my vocabulary. It’s not something I use often. There’s not a moment that goes by that I don’t want to reflect on that choice and, you know, I’m growing from it.”
Jesse Washington, The Undefeated, July 6, 2020
That interview was in June, after the George Floyd murder by a policeman in Minneapolis that was caught on film. Then two other blacks were found dead in police instances, and the African-American community, and many others beyond them, were outraged, leading to violence and to many black athletes saying, “Enough.”
That is when Rasir Bolton decided to talk. He had told Penn State and the NCAA about the comment, and the organization had allowed him to transfer without losing eligibility. He went to Iowa State where he played well last year, averaging over 14 points per game.
Bolton’s performance deteriorated after that comment
One of the few PSU men’s games that I saw happened to be a replay of a game with Nebraska, which just happened to be the one after the noose conversation. The Nittany Lions played well at times, but eventually lost, 70-64. Bolton was terrible, just 1-of-9 from the field for four points and with just one assist.
He eventually lost his starting job, though he finished the season as the second-leading scorer on the team with 11.6 points per game, according to The Undefeated.
Why did he decide to come forward?
After telling the NCAA about the noose comment, he received a waiver to play immediately and averaged 14.7 points per game in 2019-20. Penn State’s athletic integrity office only investigated Bolton’s situation after he began the transfer process.
Bolton has not spoken publicly about what happened until now, when African Americans from all walks of life finally have the opportunity to speak their truths. He decided to go public because he knows other Black athletes are dealing with similar situations.
Nearly every aspect of an athlete’s college experience is controlled by their coach. Bolton’s elite talent landed him in a good spot, but he knows some other players can’t speak up because it could cost them their playing time, their scholarships or their dreams.
“I just feel like it can help other kids who might be in that situation,” Bolton told me. “If they’re going through something like I did, I’ll come out and try to make an impact.”
Jesse Washington, The Undefeated, July 6, 2020
Conclusion
I go back to my original question to Chambers: How could you not realize how much of an impact the word “noose” would have on a black athlete?
Perhaps this has more relevance in 2020 than it did in 2019, but it would be tantamount to my asking a female athlete if she is not performing well because she is having a period. I knew better, but Chambers did not.
Why? The subtitle of The Undefeated story was this,
Too many college coaches need a basic education on racial issues.
I agree with that, but when you constantly work with black athletes and are making about a million dollars in that job, you should know better than to use certain words.
Noose is one of them — and after four blacks were found this summer hanging with a noose around their necks, that became ever more clear than previously.
Addendum: Penn State, clueless as ever
To think that PSU would have learned to handle sensitive issues after the Sandusky debacle was too much of a stretch. The PSU AD, who is a NQRPTP [not quite ready for prime time player] in my humble estimation, said that Chambers was not forced out because of that story.
Really? Without that story, the AD and PSU would have swept it under the rug, just as they did with the Sandusky abuse story. Once The Undefeated story appeared, their hand was forced.
Sad.
The Undefeated story:
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