Required Reading: Grantland Dissects the Harrison Barnes Mythos
I suppose it was inevitable. With North Carolina losing in convincing fashion yesterday, you knew the articles would come. Harrison Barnes of the North Carolina Tar Heels is not a great basketball player. Jay Caspian King of Grantland.com unravels the mystery behind Barnes in a beautifully written piece covering his recruitment announcement to his final game as a Tar Heel.
Here is a snippet of King’s article,
It’s necessary to point out here that the Barnes who held that press conference was a precocious 17-year-old honors student who prided himself on thinking of basketball as a business opportunity. Why wouldn’t he? That’s the logic of elite athletics these days — reduce everything to business, thereby enabling you to respond to every query with the always-logical response: “It’s a business.” It’s just as important to point out that this Harrison Barnes, who shot 8-for-30 from the field in his last two games at Carolina, will not turn 20 until the end of May. He’s a kid, and like all kids — especially talented ones — he’s more a product of the adults in his life than anything else. While I won’t go as far as to say that the Harrison Barnes branding project, which began in earnest during his junior year in high school, caused its main actor to miss all those shots, I do think it’s worth wondering exactly how a smart, talented basketball player became so wrapped up in his own legacy.
You can find the entire article over at Grantland.com.
Chris Willis
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