Lies, Liars & Lying Cowards (Wooden Haters)

by Nestor on Apr 14, 2006 6:13 AM PDT in Basketball

Well first of all thanks again to that Bruin fan (from Canada?) who went after that Tarkanian toady Dan Wetzel for writing his hit piece on Coach Wooden. Thanks to the Canadian (is he really Canadian?) and bluestreet's xpost on the Nation, the story exploded over the internets forcing Wetzel to respond:

Thank you for the letter.

I plan on looking into the points you made in a further investigation and will correct any mistakes from there.

If you'll allow, I think I am actually going to reexamine the entire John Wooden/Sam Gilbert relationship, which will take longer.

Wetzel went on to write how he was going to investigate this issue further hoping "to get to a new level of truth." Of course no where in that response he admitted that he had made an obvious mistake.

Again big ups to the Canadian for his outstanding work. From Wetzel's response it is clear right now that this guy (and other Bruin Haters) has an agenda to sully, defame the integrity and reputation of Coach Wooden. Quiet simply these low life vultures circling over the Coach and are looking to pounce. Canadian to his credit is keeping his eye on the issue at hand and asking Wetzel to retract his misinformation from that hit piece of Coach Wooden:

Mr. Wetzel:

Thank you for your reply.

I am sure your "further investigation" and "reexamin[ation]" may provoke all sorts of new issues, which can be debated at the appropriate time. The historical record is no doubt benefited by truthful and objective accounts of past events. However, before you embark on that process, you plainly have an obligation to your readers and to the truth to immediately correct your false attribution of Jack Scott's statement to Bill Walton. Since I cannot imagine that you printed that "quote" without having a copy of the book from which you incorrectly quoted, it should be easy for you to quickly look at your copy of the book and determine whether the statement was from Walton or Scott, without any "investigation." As you probably know, the phony "Walton quote" is circulating rapidly on the internet, defaming not only Mr. Walton, Mr. Wooden, and Mr. Gilbert's family, but (indirectly) your reputation as well. See, e.g., www.heismanpundit.com.

I would also submit that you have an obligation to explain to your readers the circumstances under which your Yahoo! article incorrectly attributed this quote to a book written by Bill Walton ("Those quotes come from none other than Bill Walton ... in his 1978 book...") when just last year, in the book you co-wrote (and co-own the copyright) with Jerry Tarkanian ("Runnin Rebel"), you attributed authorship of the same book to Jack Scott, not Walton. How you somehow forgot, within the last year, that Jack Scott, not Bill Walton, wrote that book, is a question that ought to be answered and explained to your readers immediately, prefatory to any "further investigation."

This story is exploding on the Blogosphere, and the time has come for truth and transparency, not threats and obstruction. I am sure you are an honorable man and will do the right thing.

[I also copied his boss, Berger, on this e-mail exchange.]

We will see if Wetzel or his superiors at Yahoo Sports are sincere enough to make the correction. Again to echo the sentiments expressed in that thread right now it looks clear to me that Wetzel has an anti-Wooden agenda. He completely bypasses the opportunity to correct an obvious (intentional?) mistake in his article, and in an obnoxious response pretty much threatens to investigate his version of the "truth." The guy has the arrogance talk about "selective enforcement" of the NCAA (most likely alluding to the troubles of his hero Tarkanian), yet he doesn't have the decency to own up to his mistake of "selective reporting" by picking and choosing or in this case almost making up quotes and randomly attributing to Bill Walton. So keep filling up those Yahoo Comment boxes by going here and here. Obviously our concerns are having an effect.

There is also a bigger concern here as pointed out by Bruin8Clap on BRO:

The real question is whether the media will simply repeat Wetzel's selective repetition of rumors without actually investigating the credibility of his sources, and the accuracy of his purported quotes. Unfortunately, I fear that many in the media will take the approach that repeating lies generates a lot more eyeballs than confirming a well known fact; that Wooden was not only a great coach, but that his ethics were beyond reproach.

Well there is a decent chance the lazy traditional media may just take crap like this from Wetzel and other Bruin haters like the TrojanPundit and repeat them without actually going back to the sources. In fact the TrojanPundit is claiming he is close to the situation and that he knows, "many former coaches, players and media people who were around during the Gilbert era." Well then - if he really knows the really story then he should come out and name names instead of hiding behind that cowardly moniker of unnamed sources. Right now based on the information that is available in public these incendiary implications concerning Coach Wooden's program is only coming from bunch of cowardly hacks like Wetzel and TrojanPundit whose agenda only agenda in this case is not to offer impartial commentaries on what is going on with college athletics, but to sully the character of Coach Wooden, which is beyond reproach. These cowardly liars ought to be ashamed of themselves.

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Comments

That's just it

I don't know the real or full story because no one will talk about it and the main person--Gilbert--is dead.

Usually, though, where there is smoke, there is fire.

As I said in other comment, you guys are the last people in LA who think that Gilbert didn't do anything wrong.

by Heismanpundit on Apr 14, 2006 3:23 PM PDT reply actions

This is why people don't take you seriously...

You claimed earlier that you had some inside dirt, and sources close to the situation. Then when someone says "OK. We'll believe you if you tell us who they are and what they said, so we can get the truth too." Your response is:

"I don't know the real or full story because no one will talk about it and the main person--Gilbert--is dead.

Usually, though, where there is smoke, there is fire."

That comes across as though you were talking out of your backside earlier. If you really want to be taken seriously, as it seems you do, then you need to address the specifics of the argument against you.

We are happy you corrected the specifics of the article. But, we don't like that you continue to spout this story with little more than the where there is smoke there is fire logic. There are plenty of examples of avoiding the argument in your posts and failing to confess when you have been wrong.

After all is said and done, if you want us to think of you as serious and objective, there has to be give and take. You have to deal directly with the arguments at hand rather than changing the subject all the time. Otherwise you will be classified as a Trojan Shill.

by isodore on Apr 14, 2006 7:06 PM PDT up reply actions

Well said

And you point out something very true. HP is quite apt at changing the subject, or creatively failing to answer direct questions. That's too bad. Errors in logic are one thing, intentionally dodging a forthright debate is another.

by Cocoman25 on Apr 14, 2006 8:56 PM PDT up reply actions

Nicely done ...

so now he is going to back to his TrojanPundit blog and whine about how you are a creep.

Looks like bluestreet was right all along about this guy.

by Nestor on Apr 15, 2006 7:36 AM PDT up reply actions

Hack Job

First, this is not about Gibert, it is about an honorable man, Coach Wooden who has lead an exemplary life. A person who by way of innuendo, rumor, etc. you chosse to besmirch.

Secondly, everyone checked these "Gilbert" stories out years ago and came up with nothing. Even after JW retired when the school itself would have gotten hit with any penalties, they found nothing. The fact that you know someone who knows someone is typical trojie crap when trying to push your story (agenda).

Thirdly, what did you expect to happen when you did attack JW on this website. The money your parents wasted on your education would have been better spent on a vacation (several of them). At least the memories would have been more pleasant and they wouldn't be shaking their heads on a daily basis.

We also wouldn't be dealing with a tool like you.

Spew this crap on your own site so the other illiterates can crown you king of the village that is missing it's idiot.

by artybruin on Apr 15, 2006 9:22 AM PDT up reply actions