# of my Facebook friends who are current or former Syracuse athletes: 14
# of conversations, whether in person or online, I have ever had with any of them: 0
I find it absolutely fascinating that so many college athletes open up their social network profiles to complete strangers. In the world we currently live in, with the kind of treatment questionable information and photographs can get on the Internet, why in the world would you provide personal access to, well, someone like me?
Not that I'm doing anything evil, mind you. But my interest in you is strictly based on the fact that you wear a certain uniform that I have an affinity for. It's not cause I like you as a person or consider you a friend. Our relationship is based on superficial reasons.
I think it's humorous that I log in to Facebook and see that Kristof Ongenaet is now friends with the fake Greg Robinson profile. That's pretty much the entire reason I friended Kristof in the first place. But why did Kristof accept my friendship request? What does he have to gain from having me, or any other random Syracuse fan, as a Facebook friend who can look at his personal pictures, ogle his girlfriend and post anything they want to his wall? Sure its mostly praise and positive responses, but what happens when Kristof has a bad game and a bunch of dooshbags decide to let him know about it?
It's exactly that kind of treatment that befell Donte Greene after he announced he was leaving school early. Donte even had to disable his wall so that people couldn't leave nasty comments about his decision, his sexual preferences and his genitalia (I'm guessing). Amidst his tryouts for NBA teams, Donte is beginning to open up about the experience to reporters and it's less than flattering for SU fans:
That said, there seems to be something else emerging from these interviews. A side of Donte Greene the Syracuse fans never really saw during his time here. Some might call it confidence, but at times, it seems to border more on cockiness. When he talks about reasons for leaving it's all of a sudden all about how he didn't want to share shots with Devo and Rautins and watch his stock fall. While honest, they're the kind of statements that paint himself as a me-first-shooter who'll whine when he doesn't get his way and would be happier scoring 25 points a game for a losing team than fifteen points a game for the NBA champion. As if there aren't already enough of those in the league.
And when he talks about Syracuse and the fans, that confidence/cockiness definitely slips into contempt. Some bon mots from his sit-down with the Sporting News, which begins with the sentence "Donte Greene is confident."
Donte is, if nothing else, confident of his draft-a-bility. Mock drafts be damned, Donte's sticking to his guns and saying he's top ten:
HT: Matt G.
# of conversations, whether in person or online, I have ever had with any of them: 0
I find it absolutely fascinating that so many college athletes open up their social network profiles to complete strangers. In the world we currently live in, with the kind of treatment questionable information and photographs can get on the Internet, why in the world would you provide personal access to, well, someone like me?
Not that I'm doing anything evil, mind you. But my interest in you is strictly based on the fact that you wear a certain uniform that I have an affinity for. It's not cause I like you as a person or consider you a friend. Our relationship is based on superficial reasons.
I think it's humorous that I log in to Facebook and see that Kristof Ongenaet is now friends with the fake Greg Robinson profile. That's pretty much the entire reason I friended Kristof in the first place. But why did Kristof accept my friendship request? What does he have to gain from having me, or any other random Syracuse fan, as a Facebook friend who can look at his personal pictures, ogle his girlfriend and post anything they want to his wall? Sure its mostly praise and positive responses, but what happens when Kristof has a bad game and a bunch of dooshbags decide to let him know about it?
It's exactly that kind of treatment that befell Donte Greene after he announced he was leaving school early. Donte even had to disable his wall so that people couldn't leave nasty comments about his decision, his sexual preferences and his genitalia (I'm guessing). Amidst his tryouts for NBA teams, Donte is beginning to open up about the experience to reporters and it's less than flattering for SU fans: I just got back on Facebook. I have no wall, though. On MySpace you can’t send me a message. No one can send me a message anymore. If I suck so much, why do you want me to come back? You would think I’d hurt the team if I suck so bad. That’s just how people are.Unfortunately it seems like Donte had made the mistake of taking the few jerks that did that and extrapolating them to stand for the whole. Look, I didn't agree with the guy's decision to go pro but I certainly wasn't angry with him to the point where I'd tell him he was an asshole for it and if I were in his shoes I may have very well done the same thing.
That said, there seems to be something else emerging from these interviews. A side of Donte Greene the Syracuse fans never really saw during his time here. Some might call it confidence, but at times, it seems to border more on cockiness. When he talks about reasons for leaving it's all of a sudden all about how he didn't want to share shots with Devo and Rautins and watch his stock fall. While honest, they're the kind of statements that paint himself as a me-first-shooter who'll whine when he doesn't get his way and would be happier scoring 25 points a game for a losing team than fifteen points a game for the NBA champion. As if there aren't already enough of those in the league.
And when he talks about Syracuse and the fans, that confidence/cockiness definitely slips into contempt. Some bon mots from his sit-down with the Sporting News, which begins with the sentence "Donte Greene is confident."
Too bad I don’t get enough support from up there [Syracuse]. I haven’t gotten away from it. They still e-mail me. They still ... I had to change my phone number. Somebody got my phone number. It’s crazy. You all need to let it go up there. I’m gone. You can try to support me. I came there for a year. Everybody’s seen it. I’m getting drafted. I’m going lottery, trying to go top 10. So let me go. I’m not coming back to school. I don’t get no love up there, it’s crazy, man.Something tells me we won't be seeing Donte in the stands too much next season. Then again, if this is the beginning of his public backlash against the fringe loonies, is he just going to make it worse for himself by keeping this up? It's certainly not going to help matters if he keeps talking about it.
It was thousands of times. People forwarded me the same message over and over. It was crazy. ‘You suck.’See, now I will call bullshit on that. I'm willing to bet Donte got a lot of bad stuff and that's inexcusable. But let's not blow it out of proportion. If the guy walked down the street in Syracuse right now he'd be mobbed for autographs and people cheering him on while 2 or 3 guys off to the side yell out insults. If all you want to hear is the insults, that's all you're gonna hear.
Donte is, if nothing else, confident of his draft-a-bility. Mock drafts be damned, Donte's sticking to his guns and saying he's top ten:
I’ve got a lot of teams really liking me. You’ve got New York at six, Milwaukee at eight, Charlotte at nine and Philly, those are the teams that are really interested in me. We’ll see how it goes.Donte, all the best my man. I hope you get drafted high, I really do. For all the belly-aching, I will not take any pleasure in seeing you falling into the 2nd round in a "toldja so" fashion. Well, at least not yet Just cool it with the "woe is me" routine, we'll do our best to calm down the crazies and for the love of everything that you've ever considered holy, PLEASE do not ever try to again claim that you and Gerry McNamara ever had anything in common except a jersey color. Cool? Cool.
HT: Matt G.