Jay Bilas had the absolute worst take of anybody in the media about Kyle Filipowski’s injury during a court storm at Wake Forest last month. He suggested that the best way to stop a court storm would be to arrest every single person who ends up on the floor. That’s a real thing that was said in real life.
As could be expected, Bilas was ruthlessly mocked for his take. Even the old heads who hate fun and want to eradicate court-storming all together thought that he went too far. Arresting a bunch of inebriated college students for participating in a long-standing tradition that rarely causes an issue is not the way to proceed forward.
ESPN's Jay Bilas on court storming: "If they wanted to stop it, they could stop it tomorrow… You don't have to stop the court storming. One time, all you have to do is once they're on the court, don't let them off. Just say, 'You're all detained' and give them all citations or… pic.twitter.com/Bdbb0SZTDy
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) February 26, 2024
To further discredit all of the backlash surrounding Filipowski, Duke’s star center was totally fine. Not only did it appear as though he might have initiated contact with the fan that caused his injury, the injury was not a big deal at all. Even though the seven-footer had to be carried off of the court with an ankle injury that later became a knee injury that later became minor soreness, Filipowski was cleared to play less than 96 hours after the incident and threw down a big windmill dunk the following week.
He was fine. All of the discourse was much ado about nothing.
Jay Bilas’ call for arrests was a major overreaction.
As a result of Filipowski’s clean bill of health, the Blue Devils are subject to even more hate than the Brotherhood is typically accustomed. The same can be said for ESPN’s college basketball analyst.
They were both the subject of a hilarious troll during N.C. State’s home game against Duke on Monday.
A Wolfpack fan sitting directly behind ESPN’s broadcast held up a photo of Filipowski’s face as he limped his way off of the court with an injury that ended up being a nonissue.
Bilas had no idea. It was so simple and yet so ruthless.