Kentucky players allegedly refused to shake hands with Kansas State after their shocking Sweet 16 loss Thursday night.
ESPN reported the following on what happened after the game:
“They didn’t shake our hands,” Kansas State junior guard Amaad Wainright said after his team’s 61-58 Sweet 16 victory. “It’s sorry. … They know what they did.”
Wainright said he wasn’t sure why Kentucky’s players and coaches didn’t stick around. He said he wanted to shake Calipari’s hand, in particular, but couldn’t.
“On that situation, it’s all about respect,” Wainright said. “That’s what it should have been — all about respect.”
Kentucky coach John Calipari claimed that there were no handshakes after the game because KSU was busy celebrating, but he was “happy” for his opponents.
There’s never an excuse for not shaking hands. I don’t care if you lose by 100 or win by 100. You always shake hands with the other team. It’s a sign of being a man, and it’s a sign of being an athlete. There is no place for any of this junk in sports.
You don’t want to shake hands? That’s fine. Just don’t even take the court, then. Seems like the simplest way to avoid this problem. A team has only once walked off the court on me after we ran it up on them, and I laughed at them as they went to the locker room. They were already losers on the scoreboard. They became losers in life the moment they weren’t man enough to shake our hands.
I’m not saying you have to be happy about losing. Not one bit. Of course, nobody thinks you should be happy about losing, but you should be level-headed enough to recognize the accomplishments of those who beat you. It’s really that simple. Coach Cal needs to get his guys in order because what happened last night should never happen in sports.
