ESPN in no rush to decry court-storming

SO WHERE are all those pandering ESPN college basketball yahoos to renew their approval of courtstorming after West Virginia’s student-athlete, 6-foot-8 Wesley Harris, belted a court-storming Texas Tech student Saturday following the Red Raiders’ 72-71 win?

That was just one of several playersfans skirmishes at the end of the game, the result of what ESPN analysts have blessed as school-spirited fun.

This one led to Harris’s public rep- rimand and Texas Tech being fined $25,000 by the Big 12 for its inability to ensure the safety of the visiting team.

Apparently the Big 12 is less concerned about whether court-rushing audience participants are swept up, knocked down and trampled.

That the issue is even debated tells us that such “fun” defies the human condition, that the losing team doesn’t much want to be surrounded, let alone mobbed and jostled, by those rushing the floor to celebrate the win — especially after a onepoint loss.

Only Jay Williams, among ESPN’s analysts, gave court-storming — now almost obligatory with TV’s presence and encouragement — the thumbs-down as clearly dangerous.

Williams, the former Duke star spoke from hard-earned empirical wisdom: His NBA career ended after one season due to a motorcycle accident.

So the NBA on Monday had its most uncivilized day of the season: 21 technical fouls, five ejections and a postgame attempt by several Rockets, apparently looking to rumble, to storm the Clippers’ locker room, resulting in two suspensions.

Given all the solemn pregame ceremonies, speeches and group reflection, is it impolite or impolitic to note that all of the above occurred on Martin Luther King Jr. Day?