Column slamming Rhodes is wrong

To the editor:

In Friday's paper, I found just one more instance of thoughtless journalism that makes the Kentucky Kernel, to most students, nothing more than a repeat crossword puzzle immersed in a vast pool of crap.

How could you, Mr. Datillo, be so careless and insensitive as to come up with some of the things you said about Rodrick Rhodes. It's as if you, along with all of these other Rhodes-bashers, think that Rod has actually tried to have bad games.

I mean, so what if he came to UK with the label of one of the best players in the country. He didn't ask for that label - and therefore shouldn't be criticized for not living up to the absolute superstar standards that everyone wrongly expected of him.

You say that Rhodes has "broken down in front of the fans' very eyes." You are totally wrong. Rhodes has not broken down; he has greatly improved. Have you ever stopped to think about what it takes in a player just to be consideredfor the NBA? Have you ever stopped to think about the fact that Rhodes is the only player on our team that is even thought to be good enough to play in the NBA right now? Yet no one else gets any criticism; just Rodrick Rhodes.

Finally, Mr. Datillo, you say that Rod has not been able to handle the "peripheral elements," and that his mental capacity is just not strong enough. But where do you think all of this mental stress comes from? During the season, Rodrick Rhodes - just like every other player on the team - busts his ass on a basketball court twice a day; has to travel regularly to places like Florida, California and Arkansas; has to somehow find time to study enough to keep up a respectable grade-point average; and then has to come home and listen to little critical asses like yourself tell the world how poor his performance was.

Tom Hanks said it best in "A League of Their Own": "If it was easy, anyone could do it."

Rodrick Rhodes has done it, and you, Mr. Datillo, haven't.

And you better hurry and get in all your criticism now because in either this year or the next, my man Rod's going to be raking in millions of dollars, and you, Mr. Datillo, are still going to be the same little bandwagon-riding fool you are now.

Joseph Hardy
Fine arts freshman

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