On Wednesday, in a roundup of quotes reacting to the San Antonio Spurs hiring former WNBA player Becky Hammon as an assistant coach, CBS Sports published an story that included a quote from anonymous college basketball coach waxing moronic about why a woman couldn't be a D-I coach:"A big part of being a college coach is molding boys into successful men. Obviously a woman can't do that."
Boy oh boy. We could go into statistics about single mothers and make a tasteless joke or two about how Kevin Durant thanks his mother, not his father, when he gets the MVP award, but that's well-worn territory. We could also note that Geno Auriemma is one of the most successful college women's basketball coaches of all time and presumably he's molded a lot of girls into successful ladies. We could ask what's so super special and sacred about young man-ness that they need some father figure in a suit and a bad haircut telling them to guide them through it and tell them not to commit sex crimes and steal cars. We could also ask, hey, if some boys won't tolerate being "molded" by a women, isn't that the fault of a bullshit, bankrupt macho culture that tells young men there's something shameful about having a female boss, and shouldn't we be decrying the sentiments echoed by this anonymous douche rather than waving our hands and going, "Obviously, penises only listen to other penises"?Let's focus instead on the anonymous nature of the quote, the idea of some turd frowning and pulling at his collar before telling a reporter that he'll say what he really thinks but it has to be anonymous—imagine how chickenshit that guy was in that moment. He knows that he's saying something shitty, that the thoughts in his head are misogynistic and warped, but he opened his mouth anyway. Not only that, he knew he would take heat for his comment, he knew that it would ignite a media firestorm. So he chose to hide behind anonymity, because you should only stand up and say what you believe when there's no danger of you being outed and criticized personally for it. He sounds like a great role model, just the sort of person who can be trusted to mold boys into men.David Matthews's would rather not hear about whatever it is you're molding. Follow him on Twitter.