[Cold Heat]

It looks to me like the father was putting pressure on the coach to put his son on the starter list to get face time on the camera's. At some point the coach had enough and the kid felt he was being unfair. This caused the kid to layup during practice to show his displeasure and the coach did the same by not allowing the kid to stay within the coach's sight. (a common punishment meant to make the kid angry, ashamed and promote drive and determination)

The father then rants on ESPN and claims medical mistreatment, a red herring if there ever was one. The ESP staffers try to get the coach suspended, successfully, and then the now embarrassed admin adds to the mistakes by firing the guy just a day or two short of a $800,000 dollar payout....(follow the money)

Meanwhile, the kid thinks his daddy helped his career when in fact he destroyed it, and the coach knows damn well that in the end he gets his money.

ESPN has far exceeded it's news roll once again, and I would hope that in the end they pay for it, but we shall see. I suppose the university could sue them to recoup what they are about to lose.

[jospehm20]

I pretty much agree with everythign you wrote but I think this will end up fitting exactly what Rush Limbaugh defines as the drive by media. They drive by, cause panic and confusion, kill reputations and careers and then drive away unnoticed in the excitement and are never help accountable for their actions. The only thing that amazes me is how many times the media can do this and still have any credibility left with people who should know better.

[the808bass]

One teeny tiny point you missed in your analysis was that the player had a diagnosed concussion.