Duke’s Grayson Allen has become a bit of a lightning rod every time he takes the court, which has been deserved considering his, um, trippy play and short-lived indefinite suspension.
On Tuesday night, Allen found himself at the center of another incident under a microscope, in part because of his checkered past on the court, when he appeared to give a little shove to a Florida State assistant when going for a ball out of bounds. Regardless of how it looked, that Florida State coach has come to the defense of the Duke Blue Devil.
Dennis Gates, the FSU assistant coach on the receiving end of the flying Allen shove (which sounds like a cool wrestling move), took to Twitter to address the incident. He opened his statement by admitting he may have been to blame, not Allen.
“I clearly need to do a better job of moving out of the way like my coworkers,” Gates said in his statement on Twitter. “It is my responsibility to do 1 of 2 things. The 1st is getting out of the way. The 2nd, be a good sport by making an attempt to protect an opponent blind spot. I clearly did not make the correct decision.”
Here is the full statement from Gates:
I want to make this very clear! #givegraysonabreak @ESPN @TDOnline @Warchant @Noles247 @GraysonJAllen @DukeMBB pic.twitter.com/3gKBNWfUIC
— Dennis Gates (@coachdgates) January 11, 2017
So, as far as the FSU assistant coach is concerned, this was much ado about nothing, really. And if he feels that way, then perhaps we can all collectively move on and accept this was just a weird-looking incident at full speed as a player was going out of bounds.
NO! THIS IS GRAYSON ALLEN! SOMEBODY IS GUILTY, AND IT IS ALLEN!
Well, to that, Gates continues.
“I did not in anyway feel attacked nor disrespected as the media and others are portraying Grayson Allen’s character and hustle,” Gates said. “Stop judging on hand placement. All I view it to be is, ‘A GREAT HUSTLE PLAY.’ Nothing more, nothing less.”
Here’s Allen’s alleged shove so that you can judge for yourself:
Grayson Allen has serious issues pic.twitter.com/yEaIusuiRF
— ASGI Guy (@AsgiGuy) January 11, 2017
Allen has certainly made some dirty plays on the court this season, but Gates does not think this should be filed under the same category.
“I know what a dirty play is and I was not the victim of one.”
One cannot help but wonder if Gates would have a different take on this had Florida State not topped Duke 88-72 on Tuesday.
