Donte DiVincenzo just had the game of his life. On the biggest stage of them all, the Big East’s Sixth Man of the Year achieved legendary March Madness status. He scored 31 points off the bench, the most for any non-starter in championship game history. He was far and away the best player on the floor, or at least the hottest, for the entire forty minutes of hoops.
Accordingly, DiVincenzo won the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. This comes two years after his Villanova Wildcats had won a national title, a game in which DiVincenzo was unable to play due to a foot injury.
Monday night, DiVincenzo’s college career came full circle, a beautiful story of redemption. For a brief moment, he was on top of the world.
Then someone looked at his Twitter account. I swear it’s only a matter of time before social media leads to the downfall of Western Civilization. Heck, it might already be too late.
Tuesday morning, half the headlines containing DiVincenzo’s name involved not his riveting performance from the night before but rather what he had posted on Twitter in his past.
Shocker.
The kid is barely old enough to drink. I’m pretty sure he’s made a mistake or two over the years, we all have, so who better than our beloved media to make sure his moment of glory was as short-lived as possible.
Far more despicable than any offensive Tweets DiVincenzo may have posted over the years (I read them, they weren’t the worst things in the world) is the fact that someone with nothing better to do than scour people’s Twitter accounts for hours on end decided to rain on this kid’s parade hours after the best night of his life.
Do media outlets these days employ losers in cubicles to look at Twitter accounts and uncover things people said years ago? If that’s the case, I’m in trouble ‘cause I’ve thrown some fodder out on social media that make DiVincenzo’s Tweets look like Dr. Seuss.
The only thing worse than someone actually getting paid for this kind of work is someone who does it for free, taking enjoyment in ruining one’s shining moment.
What do you do for a living, sir? I ruin lives. I’m also the mouth-breathing scourge that represents everything that’s wrong with this country.
Donte DiVincenzo is not a bad kid for quoting a rap lyric that drops an N-bomb. I don’t know if you listen to hip hop these days but you’d be hard-pressed to find a song that doesn’t include that word. Does that mean all current hip hop is shit? Of course, it doesn’t. All current hip hop is shit because it’s lost touch with the art of story-telling that made it a true American art form in the first place.
But that’s beside the point.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. We are a nation of haters. The fact that journalists are not reporting on DiVincenzo’s record-setting performance but rather what this young man did from his cellphone when he was fifteen years old is beyond outrageous and far more upsetting than the kid quoting Meek Mill on a whim.
Those who make a living doing this sort of thing might want to check their own closets before they go uncovering the skeletons in others. Or better yet, try learning what real news is.
Hey Chris,
I don’t tweet, or pay attention to much social media with the exceptional update on my Facebook page, so I don’t know of what you speak. That’s not too suggest someone go scouring through other social media programs looking for me and something I said or posted about what I did years ago. Couldn’t be when I was 15 because social media didn’t exist then…but I digress.
I think your point is well made. How is it that we as a society are so envious of someone else’s success, that it becomes a mission to seek and destroy? In part, I can point the finger to the folks that, as you put it, either get paid to do this kind of work or have too much time on their hands and are jealous because they never had the skill set to cleanly block with 2 hands what would have otherwise been a posterizing dunk…and not foul! Journalists are part of that blame, but the readers who jump on it are just as guilty.
I could partially accept it if it were subsequently used as a training tool to educate folks about the dangers of your past, so live a life that suggests you don’t regret anything you do or say, but that’s pretty idealistic.
It’s a cold cruel world out there, but it’s blogs like this that help me “keep hope alive”. Well done sir, well done.
Exactly why I have zero social media accounts. I reserve my web activity to comments sections only.
#1, Sarcasm gets too easily lost in the written word
#2, My sense of humor is way too offensive for all these snowflakes
#3 People can’t take a joke anymore
#4, Those looking for something to be “offended” by will always be able to find it, intended or not.
A great season for Villanova !!!
Villanova should be good enough to make the Final Four next season , win the tournament itself , making it three championships in the last four years.
People with limited intelligence will only believe what they are told to believe. Screw them!
Thanks, Mony, and you’re right. That was a SHNASTY block! Kid was on fire that night. That was his high time only to be ruined the next day, at least to some extent, by some putz with an internet connection.
You bring up a valid point that I didn’t mention in the article. Perhaps it is envy. But still, let the kid have his moment. If you do the math, those Tweets came out when the kid was 15!
I don’t know about you but I did some pretty stupid shit when I was 15. Still might be doing some stupid shit now.
Judge lest not we be judged, right?
Bleed…
You are 100% correct. Social media is not ready for you.
Although your presence would immediately make the forum a more entertaining place to visit.
Al….
Jay Wright has done a pretty impressive job with that program.
With all the other coaches name coming up soiled, he seems to be doing his job pretty well and running a clean program to boot.
Not that many years back we were all wondering here if Jay Wright was going to “get over the hump.” Great dresser, awesome recruiter…but coming up very short in the tourney after super seasons was getting super frustrating. Kudos to Nova for sticking with him (and he with them). It is truly amazing this little ‘ol school down the road from me has gotten it done twice in the last three times out. And they won’t be slouches next year either. Hating has definitely become a career for some, a hobby for others. Sad, but true.
Burnsy…
I didn’t realize that Wright had been there since 2001. Certainly doesn’t seem like that long.
You’re (W)right though. These days, he can pretty much stay there for as long as he wants.