Hornets decline Bouknight's fourth-year option

[Dogdeacon]

Really good summary of what we all witnessed and shook our heads at while watching this absurd decline into the abyss.

Yikes, that is an unflinching fact based exposure. Long odds for Bouk to play in the league ever again.

 

[husky429]

That should've been his wakeup call. He stole the girls car, was drunk, crashed it, and then tried to drive away on the cop before running on the cop. No DUI, no stolen car charge because the girl hooked him up by changing her story. Sometimes a slap on the wrist isn't the best thing but as far as we know he didn't have other problems with the law until the NBA.

In retrospect, Hurley (and the law) probably should have been harder on him. It's hard to predict though.

This happens to me at work all the time. You're trying to make a judgment call about what lesson will stick with teenagers who are by definition entirely unpredictable. Some of them get it together, others get drunk with a gun in the car, then drive 130 down the highway and pass out in a parking garage.

 

[Kathy]

In retrospect, Hurley (and the law) probably should have been harder on him. It's hard to predict though.

This happens to me at work all the time. You're trying to make a judgment call about what lesson will stick with teenagers who are by definition entirely unpredictable. Some of them get it together, others get drunk with a gun in the car, then drive 130 down the highway and pass out in a parking garage.

Some never get it

 

[Kenny11]

It wasn't just haranguing the refs. I was sitting about 40 feet behind that clown. He was walking onto the court during live action and repeatedly ignoring direction from the officials. He was being an entitled, juvenile, a-----hole that was actively disrupting the game. He was endangering the safety of everyone on the court. The refs nearly ran into him multiple times while running down the court because he was 10 -12 feet out onto the court. If it was anybody else, he would have gotten the boot within 5 minutes. Instead, an AD handler had to sit next to him and that didn't even work. Believe what you want but there was nothing to love about his actions. Do you really think the AD Dept didn't have any opinion on one of their former players, a lottery pick nonetheless, getting kicked out of a game by a referee?

He was hammered

 

[husky429]

He was hammered

Definitely has drug/alcohol problems. Doesn't excuse the antics, but it explains some of the weird off-the-court injuries.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

The only thing that reflected poorly on the university was the light touch on the wrist for the car incident. The school and program were able to at least have plausible deniability because he ran and (to my knowledge) didn't face a field sobriety test and the girl (who probably faced an enormous amount of pressure to do so) changed her story. Any other student would have been likely kicked out of school.

With that said, Bouknight being a jerk and getting booted from Gampel and subsequently tanking his NBA career is on him.

 

[Fishy]

He embarrassed himself, the program, and the university. He had plenty of warnings throughout the game and his behavior just got worse and worse. The Athletic Dept is also partly to blame. When the referee kicked him out, which he had the right to do, The AD handler instead moved into the corner then lost track of him and he ended up in the student section. They should have quietly escorted him out of Gampel. I hope is permanently banned from Gampel.

Lol.

This is dumb.

 

[dannyHAM]

I was thinking rural Serbia to avoid the night

Haha. Where the big teams are, the nightlife is LIT.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

Not likely to happen, but Miami would be perfect. A no-nonsense team on the floor to get his on-court focus right. And Caron Butler as a mentor for him on the coaching staff.

Doubt Miami would be interested, but that would be perfect for Bouk.

Although on second thought, maybe the Miami nightlife temptations wouldn't be ideal.

I agree with all angles of this post. Mentorship, yeah it’s great. But Bouk in Miami?

 

[twiceahusky]

I can't imagine how some of you guys walk through life with sticks so far up your ass end. Good grief. The university was not embarassed because an alumni decided to harangue the refs at a game.

Geez. Someone suggests that Bouknight’s behavior was embarrassing, and you bring out the sticks up ass? Settle down, the fella voiced an opinion.

I’m fairly sure that you are in education. So pretend one of your most popular/decorated recent alums returned to your school (big game, graduation, you name it), was apparently very drunk and behaved so badly that officials kicked them out. You then direct your own staff member to keep an eye them, but your staff lost track of them and they reappeared elsewhere. In such a situation, would your school be embarrassed? Sure as heck mine would be!

 

[Travelman6]

I was thinking rural Serbia to avoid the nightlife.

They party pretty hard here!

 

[YearoftheHusky]

He’s made mistakes. Raise your hand if you didn’t at his age. I’ll wait.

But despite all the victory laps here, he’ll always have a banner on the wall in Storrs.

Maybe he just doesn’t love basketball. That’s OK. Or maybe he does and will make millions more in the future in the NBA or overseas.

Either way, the speed at which UConn fans pile dirt on this guy’s grave when we don’t even know if he’s dead is wild and sad.

Maybe he needed to win it all so we’d still root for better days ahead like Ben Gordon?

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

He’s made mistakes. Raise your hand if you didn’t at his age. I’ll wait.

But despite all the victory laps here, he’ll always have a banner on the wall in Storrs.

Maybe he just doesn’t love basketball. That’s OK. Or maybe he does and will make millions more in the future in the NBA or overseas.

Either way, the speed at which UConn fans pile dirt on this guy’s grave when we don’t even know if he’s dead is wild and sad.

Maybe he needed to win it all so we’d still root for better days ahead like Ben Gordon?

His behavioral record has given a lot of people here a lot to work with as the story unfolds, the back story back fills, speculation runs rampant, and most people mirror their own trauma & imperfections. It's like playing with house money, but it's also a naked display that given an opening and the opportunity, men like to dish and gossip too.

 

[superjohn]

His behavioral record has given a lot of people here a lot to work with as the story unfolds, the back story back fills, speculation runs rampant, and most people mirror their own trauma & imperfections. It's like playing with house money, but it's also a naked display that given an opening and the opportunity, men like to dish and gossip too.

What's the Bouknight gossip?

 

[YearoftheHusky]

His behavioral record has given a lot of people here a lot to work with as the story unfolds, the back story back fills, speculation runs rampant, and most people mirror their own trauma & imperfections. It's like playing with house money, but it's also a naked display that given an opening and the opportunity, men like to dish and gossip too.

Legit good response. Doesn’t make it sit any easier with me. He’s one of our guys. We should protect him, not prosecute.

 

[CL82]

It seems like all the new guys in the last few years are high character guys with their priorities set. Expect that going forward. Maybe Bouk was a learning experience for Dan on what type of guy not go after.

Other than the issue before his first season, do we know that Bouk's "character" what is an issue at Connecticut? It he didn't seem like he was a selfish player or poison in the locker room to me.

 

[GlastonTim]

Other than the issue before his first season, do we know that Bouk's "character" what is an issue at Connecticut? It he didn't seem like he was a selfish player or poison in the locker room to me.

Not sure. Someone in the thread hinted there were other things that happened during his time here.

 

[BGesus4]

Remember what he wore the night he was back at Gampel? Black hoody, gold bling, tinted glasses. No UConn blue, no Husky logo, no indication he cared about his former school one bit. He had to know the TV cameras would be drawn to him and apparently he wanted that moment, or those moments, to be all about him and him alone. I had little affection for him prior to that night and zero afterward.

I couldn’t believe they allowed him to be shown on tv wearing that. Don’t they know kids watch these games too.

 

[CL82]

Not sure. Someone in the thread hinted there were other things that happened during his time here.

There were some "known" things, but none of them were clubhouse issues per se.

 

[Yankees32123]

Some of the comments here are wild. He is still on the Hornets roster this year and has a chance to turn things around. Sure it's probably his last chance, but if he rehabs hard and plays well when he's back from injury, he might stick in the league. It's not over for him.

For all his flaws, the Hornets were probably the worst franchise for him to get drafted to. They have a long track record of employing knuckleheads and clearly do not invest in the type of mentorship, mental health or development resources that would have served Bouknight well.

 

[auror]

Some of the comments here are wild. He is still on the Hornets roster this year and has a chance to turn things around. Sure it's probably his last chance, but if he rehabs hard and plays well when he's back from injury, he might stick in the league. It's not over for him.

For all his flaws, the Hornets were probably the worst franchise for him to get drafted to. They have a long track record of employing knuckleheads and clearly do not invest in the type of mentorship, mental health or development resources that would have served Bouknight well.

He is very likely not going to be given another chance by Charlotte this season. The Hornets no longer have "control" over his contract (he'll be an unrestricted free agent) and to them there's little likelihood he will make an impact on winning this season based on his past play for them, so they are not going to invest minutes into him when he returns from injury. They have other young players to give the minutes to.

He's going to have to work back into the league from the G league somewhere next season.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

They party pretty hard here!
View attachment 92648

Is he standing on a table? If not, good lord.

 

[Dogdeacon]

Some of the comments here are wild. He is still on the Hornets roster this year and has a chance to turn things around. Sure it's probably his last chance, but if he rehabs hard and plays well when he's back from injury, he might stick in the league. It's not over for him.

For all his flaws, the Hornets were probably the worst franchise for him to get drafted to. They have a long track record of employing knuckleheads and clearly do not invest in the type of mentorship, mental health or development resources that would have served Bouknight well.

It doesn’t seem like you could have read the SI article. Read that, that opinion with backup is unrelenting and makes our musings favorable by comparison.

 

[Fan1978]

Legit good response. Doesn’t make it sit any easier with me. He’s one of our guys. We should protect him, not prosecute.

Clearly Hurley did protect him. Absolutely wont help himself with all the speeding etc. hornets should have hired him a driver or probably tried. A total waste of raw ability, very sad. Hopefully this will be wake up call.

 

[Chief00]

I can't imagine how some of you guys walk through life with sticks so far up your ass end. Good grief. The university was not embarassed because an alumni decided to harangue the refs at a game.

The University did embarass themselves when the referee ejected James and the University failed to execute what is basic protocol - escorting the offending party out of the arena.
Officiating is a tough job and once that handoff is done, the university must take over and follow the process.
I personally think that episode has hurt us with Big East officials. Professionally, we don’t exactly have their backs.