Duke guard Grayson Allen is a thug.
He's a full-fledged habitual thug who happens to be good at basketball. He's also a temperamental, whiny brat, but make no mistake about it, he's a thug. Mainstream media has been reluctant to call him that, and the handling of his on-court violence has been a joke, by not only the NCAA but also his Hall of Fame coach, Mike Krzyzewski.
On Dec. 21, Allen committed his third tripping violation against Elon’s Steven Santa Ana. That's right; when things weren't going Allen's way, he stuck out his foot and kicked his opponent, causing him to fall.
Luckily, no one has been seriously injured thus far, but nothing—nothing—has stopped Allen from throwing full-on temper tantrums on the court. While I'm fully aware that on-court retaliation is part of the game, where Allen's behavior turns into thuggery is the fact that he's initiating the violence.
In a Feb. 8 matchup with Louisville, Allen stuck out both his legs after falling to the floor and tripped Cardinals forward Ray Spalding as he ran up-floor. He was issued a flagrant foul and that was it.
Later that same month, Allen tripped Florida State guard Xavier Rathan-Mayes as the Seminoles guard began to run up-court, resulting in a public reprimand from the ACC, but no suspension.
After Allen's third violation, coach Krzyzewski swore that he would handle it. After a public outcry demanding that Allen be disciplined, Coach K came out and announced that Allen had been stripped of his team captaincy and placed on an indefinite suspension.
On Dec. 31, Duke played its first game without Allen and got crushed by Virginia Tech, 89-75.
Minutes before Duke's Wednesday-night game against Georgia Tech, it was announced that Allen would be in the starting lineup. His indefinite suspension lasted one game—just one.
In the words of the DeRay Mckesson, "Watch whiteness work." This, in a nutshell, is white privilege at its finest. Allen has crossed the line several times and hasn't received anything close to a real reprimand. This display of whiteness is a micro view of America, where white violence is chided and whitesplained.
I would bet dollars to doughnuts it won't be the last time we're going to hear that Allen has committed some act of aggression on the basketball court, and I don't doubt that some media news outlet will be there to make it all go away.