Poetic Justice

As a longtime resident of Greater Boston, I routinely root for the local schools competing in the NCAA basketball tournament. But this year, I found that I could not, in good conscience, support the talented Boston College (BC) basketball team. After a much-publicized fight on the early morning of Jan. 4 between some members of the team and other patrons of a Boston bar, I could hardly enjoy watching the Eagles play.

Accounts from witnesses painted the BC players as instigators of the altercation. Initial reports alleged that freshman Andrew Bryant precipitated the fight by slapping a lady when she told him he was sitting in her boyfriend's seat. Later accounts alleged that senior Kenny Harley started the incident by using his index finger to push the lady out of a seat that he claimed was his. Though some of the accounts contradict each other, none seem to paint a sympathetic picture of Bryant and Harley, who were both arrested.

Three months later, I had forgotten the specifics of the bar incident. Watching BC in the tournament, I was stunned when, trailing by three points in the closing seconds of a game against the University of Southern California, guard Kenny Harley drove to the basket instead of shooting a trey. It is clear that an error occurred; BC needed three points to tie and, instead of shooting a trey, Harley went for two. The next day Harley was the goat, criticized for failing to keep track of the score.

At first I felt bad for Harley. Many athletes make mistakes under pressure, and after all, Harley is a young player who is not being paid. Then I remembered that Harley was the one implicated in the bar fight.

Is this a case of poetic justice? Surprisingly, BC and its coach Al Skinner decided not to punish Harley or Bryant after the January incident "until all the facts were known." One must wonder whether that decision was based upon the merits of an innocent-until-proven-guilty philosophy or the importance of maintaining team chemistry on a then-undefeated basketball team. In any event, it was immensely ironic that Harley was kept on the team only to make the costliest error of the season.

The bar fight case was conveniently postponed until after the NCAA tournament. But its outcome will go a long way towards proving that either fate does exist, or Harley has been in the wrong place at the wrong time twice in the past three months.

--Shan P. Patel