Roy Williams and the fascist state of North Carolina basketball

The Presbyterian College basketball fan who was ejected from the Smith Center on Saturday during his team’s game with North Carolina is objecting to reports that he was drunk and ticketless. He’s also saying that he was 86ed from the premises by order of Tar Heels czar-like head coach Roy Williams, because cops told him so. Brian King, who was sitting with North Carolina friends 20 rows behind the Tar Heels bench, was removed from the arena after Williams pointed him out to police. King’s crime? Yelling “Miss it!” when North Carolina’s Deon Thompson was about to shoot a free throw.
Fascism rears it’s ugly head at the institution that gave us James K. Polk and Andy Griffith? Without eternal vigilance, it could happen here.

UNC officials are sticking by their story that King was drunk and disorderly — and didn’t have the proper ticket — when he was given the bum’s rush. But King vehemently disputes that account.

“I was not intoxicated,” said King, a 1996 Presbyterian graduate who lives in Concord. “I was not asked to produce a ticket … that was fabricated, and that’s what I’m upset about.”

King said that police told him he was being ejected only because Williams wanted it so.

Young said King was not arrested, nor were charges pressed or trespass orders issued. King said he was given a different reason for why he was ejected.

“I was told, ‘Because this is Roy’s house, and when Roy says you need to go, you go’ ” King said. “I thought it was sort of amusing.”

So, trumped-up charges, a university cover-up, and a coach who can have you disappear merely by waggling his finger in your direction. Nice, North Carolina. Perhaps the great actor Jack Palance, who transferred from your institution and ended up graduating from Stanford, had the right idea.
I’m a firm believer in the unalienable right of any American to heckle at a college basketball game, as long as he has a vaild ticket, and has not been consuming beer from a bong-like device beforehand. If the tender sensibilities of Roy Williams cannot handle one guy from Presbyterian College squeaking the words “Miss it!” from 20 rows up, Mr. Williams should pursue his true calling: professional corn detasseler.
***
Tar Heels coach Roy Williams thought fan was a little too PC [The Sun News]