Kevin Stallings thinks there’s a way to win with grace and lose with grace.
His players may agree in public and disagree privately after the basketball coach was forced to say sorry to one of his own players when mic’s picked up a threat to do some serious harm to them.
The Valderbilt Commodores coach was angered by how his guard Wade Baldwin IV had gloated in the face of an opponent following the 73-65 win over Tennessee.
Stalling’s took the player to task but his rather colourful language was caught on mics and viwers could hear Stalling’s say ‘I’m going to f**king kill you.’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvikC2WRqlw
If you don’t like your swears bleeped out here’s the unedited version but you may have to pump up the volume to hear the bold words
After the game Stelling explained his reaction to reporters in the post game press conference and some hours later spoke to ESPN and submitted this apology for his actions:
‘I handled it completely inappropriately and I apologised to Wade — and I need to apologise to our fans and the Vanderbilt administration. Having said that, and it may seem as though I’m trying to rationalise my behaviour, sportsmanship will continue to be a high priority. I did not mean it in the literal sense and I’ve never touched a player in all my years as a coach. That’s not me. I will learn from this and handle this situation differently in the future..
In fairness to Wade he didn’t take the threats too much to heart either as he forgave the coach for his public scolding.
Coach Stallings is the best coach in America. I felt no offense to anything. We are both fiery people and that's why I chose Vandy ⚓️👇
— IV (@The_Fourth_Wade) February 27, 2015
