Anyone who has an opinion, at some time or another, gets accused of "sour grapes."
Why, just the other day, it seems like, I was being accused of sour grapes over something political I wrote.
Imagine that.
Sour grapes is an expression originating from "The Fox and the Grapes," an Aesop fable. It's essentially denial. It's when you deny your desire for something you can't hope to obtain.Recently, here in Warsaw, I've seen some of the sourest grapes ever. I might even characterize them as rotten grapes.
And it's all over basketball - again.
See, our sports department has been covering a local athlete that has done quite well for himself - Miles Plumlee.
This kid, who moved here from Lafayette in second grade, is averaging eight-and-a-half minutes of playing time per game for Duke as a freshman.
Now, if you know anything about college hoops, you know that Duke is one of the top programs in the country.
It's inarguable.
Their coach, Mike Krzyzewski, is legendary.
So, of course, our sports guys, who are paid to know about these things, are pretty excited about it.
Just as, back in the day, the sports guys were pretty excited about Rick Fox. I remember we actually had a "Fox Watch" box on the sports page to keep up on his achievements.
Fox, you may remember, played here for a couple years in the mid '80s. He played at North Carolina for Dean Smith and then for the Boston Celtics. He ended his NBA career with the Los Angeles Lakers where he got himself three world championship rings.
Fox really wasn't much from Warsaw. He moved here from the Bahamas and only lived here a few years.
But here's the thing.
It became apparent early on that the Plumlee kid (and his two younger brothers) weren't going to fit in very well with the Tiger basketball program.
The kid's dad, seeing potential in his oldest son, decided to move him to a private high school in North Carolina.
The dad probably saw the potential because he was a Division I college basketball player himself. (So was the kid's mom - at Purdue, where she holds the single-game rebounding record, by the way.)
This wasn't an easy decision, I'm sure. I know the dad a little bit and I know about the family. They're pretty close knit. Who wants their teenage son to be 10 hours away? Who wants to miss most of their son's high school games?
Nonetheless, since the son really loved basketball, the dad felt it was in his son's best interest to give him a chance to excel.
And excel he did.
And so did his brother, Mason, who also went to the school in North Carolina and who also has signed to play college ball at Duke.
And their younger brother, Marshall, also is playing at the school in North Carolina. He hasn't signed with any school yet, but is being courted by the likes of I.U., Notre Dame and Purdue.
Who knows?
Maybe he'll wind up at Duke, too.
To say that this is a trio of kids who can play some basketball is an obscene understatement.
I'm not going to list their achievements here, but Google any of their names and see what pops up.
The list of accomplishments of these kids is pretty amazing.
Go to rivals.com or scout.com or espn.com where they rank potential college players.
For example, espn.com has a feature called ESPNU top 100 for 2009. It's a ranking of the best high school players in the country. Mason is ranked 9th in the country overall and 4th among power forwards.
Go to goduke.com and check out Miles' hoops resume.
So anyway, Tuesday night, Miles played back in his home state for the first time as a college player.
What a story, right? Miles , a Warsaw kid, playing for Duke against his mom's alma mater.
One sports guys wrote a preview of the Duke-Purdue game and the other sports guy went to the game, wrote a story and took a picture. (He didn't get back to Warsaw from West Lafayette until 2 a.m. and had to be to work at 7:30 a.m.)
The result?
The sports guys get e-mails like the following, which, by the way, I am cutting and pasting verbatim:
Attn: sports ed: be sure you include mr plumlee's performance in the game last night. 2 minutes playing time is great but the one turnover is even more impressive. Sure sorry he got away from WCHS.
Are you kidding me? The kid's from Warsaw. He's a freshman. He's playing for Duke.
Ah, yes, the textbook sour grapes. This particular e-mail was from a very well-known name in Warsaw whom I will spare the shining light of public scrutiny.
There were other snotty e-mails, too, and a letter to the editor.
Well, you know what sports fans?
Get used to it.
I'm encouraging our sports guys to follow the achievements of Warsaw kids like these all the way to the NBA, if they make it.
I'm encouraging them to find angles and write stories.
They might even get in a little hot water from me if they don't.
Frankly, I think it's kind of cool when they talk about the brothers from Warsaw, Ind., on ESPN.
So from now on all you haters out there can spare my sports guys the agony.
