Nation of Blue

Basketball

My Video Went Viral and I Learned Some Valuable Lessons

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For those of you who don’t know, I often cover high school basketball on Allkyhoops.com.

Last night, I attended a game at Boyle County High School to watch the Rebels vs. Taylor County High School.

Truth be told, my intentions were to enjoy a night of holiday vacation at a local game and basically just spend some time with my daughter. I decided to record a few videos and as these things sometimes go…this happened:



Of course, adrenaline was running high and I immediately fired up social media (Twitter and Facebook) to post the video. Without putting much thought into the post, I clicked submit and that’s when the fun began.

The video went viral and has been viewed roughly 50,000 times in the past 24 hours.

That’s a reporter’s dream, right? Well, yes. We post videos in hopes of getting views, which leads to clicks, which ultimately leads to advertising money.

But, there’s also a negative side of “going viral.”

When a video explodes; there will be trolls, people who disagree with you and a few folks who are just on a different wavelength. That’s all normal and just how the Internet works. In this particular situation, I learned some valuable lessons.

For starters, let’s break down the video and go from there.

How did this happen?

This game was an intense, physical game from the start. Boyle County has faced some adversity this week and they came out ready to regroup and play some basketball. Taylor County probably had more talent on the court, but it was clear that Boyle County was out-playing them in the first half.

There were a few incidents leading up to the viral video. Several players were jawing. There were some overly rough actions taking place away from the ball. It was very clear to everyone in attendance that things were escalating. At one point things got to the point that I was only filming a couple of players who were really going at each other.

Players were frustrated. Coaches were barking. Fans were hooting and hollering. The atmosphere was growing in intensity.

Finally, in the third quarter, things came to a head and the viral video happened. To be fair, the game settled down and the fourth quarter was intense, but clean.

Who should we blame?

I have trouble placing full blame on kids, even when they are guilty. It’s true that one of the Taylor County players was being overly aggressive and players from both teams were talking. It was an intense game. Both teams wanted to win. I get it. That’s part of basketball.

In my opinion, I think the entire situation could have been diffused early with double fouls, a few warnings and maybe even a technical or two. I think if most of the fans in attendance could see trouble brewing, the officiating crew should have noticed. I place a part of the blame on the referees for allowing things to escalate.

Likewise, I think the coaching staffs could have done more to control things. I’m not blaming Taylor County’s coach…he’s done a great job this season and should be commended for taking over the team just before the opening game…but I think he could’ve done a little more to calm his players down. At the end of the day, it’s difficult for a player to instigate trouble on the court if he’s sitting on the bench.

Things happened.

You can watch the video and see exactly what happened. Two players were starting to jaw, one of the referees ran in to prevent things from getting worse. It’s difficult to tell in the video, but the perception of most of the Taylor County faithful was that the referee pushed No. 30 a little more aggressively than he should have. No. 30 then tried to charge at the Boyle County player…twice. He was eventually carried back to his bench by teammates. Talking continued. There appeared to be multiple technical fouls called. At least one fan ran onto the court. Eventually everyone was separated and an innocent bench chair took a beating.

In the end, no players were ejected, no technical fouls were issued, no fans were removed from the gym and the game started back. All the players involved in the ruckus quickly checked back in and Boyle County held off a rally to win the game.

Lessons learned.

I allowed myself to get caught up in the emotion of the game and quickly posted a Tweet while still filled with adrenaline. I didn’t really think much of it.

My mistake was interjecting too much of my own lingo and opinion into the Tweet.

“All hell just broke loose…” I admit that I say this pretty often in my personal life and often use this phrase to describe anything that is out of the norm. For me, it was just second nature to go to Twitter and say, “all hell just broke loose at Boyle County.” It’s clear that many of you need more action for “all hell is breaking loose” and I’m okay with that.

“A ref pushed a kid…” Technically the ref did push the kid, but I in no way meant to imply that the ref did something wrong here. It sounded that way and I later apologized after things calmed down and I realized my mistake.

“There was almost an all out brawl…” Again, this is how I would describe what I saw, but other people on social media think this was too strong. Two teams had to be separated and adults were coming out of the stands. I’m not sure what else you would call that, but I should have let people decide what to call it on their own.

“Multiple fouls…” In the end, there were two personal fouls called I believe. In the video, you can plainly see the refs calling technical fouls, but for whatever reason, those were not enforced.

“A chair paid the price…” Let’s face it…that chair stayed on its feet after taking two hard punches.

What can I say? I posted with emotion and opinion. I can’t take it back. I just posted it the way I would have said it. My lesson for the future is to just post the video and let viewers form their own opinions of what they watched.

The replies were great.

I have to give credit to people on social media. For the most part, their replies were hilarious.

In closing, I’ll reply to a few of these. I played for Magoffin County High School in the early- to mid-1990s. I promise that I know plenty about intense 15th Region games. I have also seen the Paintsville/Prestonsburg brawl video. “I don’t know who all’s involved here other than the gentleman beside of John Pelphry’s dad…”

For those who dismiss this as “just another Saturday night” or “just a few players going back and forth,” I disagree. I’ve been to a lot of basketball games around the state and this doesn’t happen night-in and night-out. Players talking and going at each other, yes. Teams being separated and fans running onto the court, no.

For the “fake news” and “misrepresentation” crew…I agree that my original Tweet was too dramatic. I wish Twitter had an edit feature. Lesson learned on that.

No, we shouldn’t shut down high school athletics. That’s beyond ridiculous.

No, I’m not sorry for posting this video. I go to games to post what happens. I’m not going to hide anything. Good or bad, I’m posting what happens. That doesn’t make me “immature” or “shitty.” Well, I am a little immature but I’m definitely not shitty.

You are all entitled to your own opinions and I respect them all. I enjoy feedback, even if it’s not all positive. I won’t block you or call you fat, drunk and stupid like some other reporters (looking at you Dakich).

Thanks for taking the time to read my thoughts and hopefully better understanding my intentions. I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a happy holiday season!

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