Why Everyone Hates Tyler Hansbrough

Lately I have noticed a mass of "Why Does Everyone Hate Tyler Hansbrough?" articles on the Internet and they all seem like the kind of article where the title asks a question and then the column that follows answers it by defending Hansbrough. If a player is talked about enough that there is an entire article written about why people hate him, the fact you wrote an entire article about it defending him is EXACTLY why everyone hates him. I could be counted among those people who are not a big Tyler Hansbrough fan, but first a little background into why I don't dislike him more than any of his teammates.

Full disclosure here: I fucking hate UNC basketball. I hate them more than I hate any other team despite the fact when I get married there will be a minimum of three groomsman who are diehard UNC fans and my sister went to school there. I actually have to avoid the subject with each party because they hate my favorite team and I hate their favorite team, but that is the only thing we differ on so there is no reason to ruin a perfectly good friendship over insane hatred. I hate UNC in the most bizarre way, where I can't stand to watch their games because it makes my stomach churn and I want to throw the television out the window if they are winning. I dread Duke-UNC basketball games. I can't stand watching them, I just want them to be over. I clearly need therapy for this because if I am watching UConn-Pitt on ESPN and the announcers say Pitt can beat UNC, I almost always say, "no way, UNC would wipe the floor with them, they are deeper and more talented," yet if Pitt plays UNC I will cheer for Pitt as much as I humanly can without buying a Pittsburgh Panthers jersey and wearing it around...but yet if someone is comparing conferences I always throw the UNC National Championships in there as proof of how strong the ACC is. I once wrote an email to Matt Doherty and Ronald Curry calling them out for the bullshit they pulled in February 2001 during a basketball game. I did not get hit with a restraining order, but I also did not get an email back. I am deranged. I truly believe UNC is going to win the National Championship and I 100% believe this is true because they are the best team in the country and have every single attribute a championship team needs. This post is not about me, though I know it seems that way, but it is about Tyler Hansbrough and I just wanted to Gregg Doyel it up and tell you how much I hate UNC before I actually write something of substance.

First, Gary Parrish wonders why everyone hates Hansbrough. Then he writes this article and it pretty much sums up the reason everyone hates him by fawning over him. I actually feel a little bad for Hansbrough...simply because I don't dislike him any more than I dislike his teammates...still it is pretty obvious why there is a Hansbrough backlash. This article and the next two after that will be Exhibits A-C.

And just like that -- exactly 13.8 seconds earlier than most expected -- Tyler Hansbrough's historic career in this historic building came to a close, North Carolina's all-time leading scorer required by rule to exit the court after his fifth foul Sunday.

The only time Tyler Hansbrough will foul out during a game is when the game is already in hand. He can go over a player's back 100 times a game or commit 10 other fouls trying to get a loose ball and he will not get called for it. I would put the odds of him fouling out at a crucial point in the NCAA Tournament roughly near 1,000,000 to 1.

I also like how Parrish wrote "required by rule" because Hansbrough is seen as such a hard worker, it is impossible to get him off the court unless it is required by rule. He sleeps, eats and goes to the bathroom on the court...refusing to leave, unless required by rule of course.

Because that final walk to the bench was the consequence of a fifth foul, the result of a mistake. So Hansbrough was certifiably pissed during every step of his trek from the far end of the court, and when he arrived at the bench he simply shook the hand of Roy Williams, all business, right to the end.

"I was mad," Hansbrough said. "I was upset with myself."

Nearly every player in college basketball is upset when they foul out of a game. Only one or two get an article written about them mentioning this as a positive attribute that should be celebrated. Hansbrough cares so much more than any other player because he is a competitor. He is like David Eckstein, except really tall and a lot more bizarre looking.

My sister keeps telling me Hansbrough is a peach of a guy and I believe her, but I can't separate this from his on court persona. That would ruin the hatred for me. I must compartmentalize at all times.

In a word, it was sweet. And as he did all this while alternating between a smile and tears, I couldn't help but watch and wonder why more players don't hang around for this type of stuff, why everybody always seems in such a hurry to leave college, ASAP.

I don't know if this is supposed to be a puff piece but I feel like this article should have the hushed lighting of a Barbara Walters interview.

And just so we're clear, you'll never read a column authored by me where a player is criticized for choosing millions over school. In fact, you're more likely to read a column authored by me where a player who turns down millions to stay in school is criticized, because I've long been of the opinion that delaying or risking millions of guaranteed money to play college basketball is stupid.

I think I can agree with this.

But Hansbrough makes me question that opinion.

This is a great reason why everyone hates Hansbrough. Gary Parrish is so resolute that players should choose taking money over staying in college and he thinks those that don't do this are stupid...but yet Hansbrough makes him question his own resolute opinion because of how much fun he looks like he is having in college. Tyler is special, his very existence in college basketball makes other people question their beliefs on whether chasing money in the NBA is a good decision.

Each time he didn't do it, he passed on millions. But had he ever done it he would've passed on all this, i.e., the records, the honors, the legend and, yeah, the normal things that go along with being a college student.

"I'll remember all the fun I've had off the court, too," Hansbrough said. "Going to parties, jumping off frat houses, doing stupid stuff."

Exactly.

Doing stupid stuff.

Don't all of our best college memories revolve around doing stupid stuff?

Parties and movies and all-nighters and girlfriends.

God, this sounds all very High School Musical 4 doesn't it?

Here is a quick study in media perception. While the perception of Matt Leinart is that he stayed in school to take a loaded USC team to a national title, take as few classes as possible and party with his friends, Tyler Hansbrough is glorified and put up on a pedestal for passing up money for hanging out in college and partying. This is exactly why people hate Tyler Hansbrough. It's a minor difference in perception, but there is a difference. Granted Leinart was at USC a fifth year and Hansbrough will graduate in four years, but I am not talking about reality here, I am talking about the perception of both athletes. If we were talking about reality then everyone who hated and praised Hansbrough would be wrong for feeling the way they do. The truth is somewhere in the middle. Each player has a different perception of their decision to stay in college and they differ simply based on how the media talked about their decision or at least how the media shaded their decision.

Matt Leinart- lazy loser for staying in college, partying with his friends, and doing stupid stuff like dating Paris Hilton rather than taking the guaranteed money of the NFL.

Tyler Hansbrough- over achieving kid who "gets it" by staying in college and passing up the terrible lure of the Sirens of the NBA and its evil money. Just enjoying college by jumping off the roof of buildings into swimming pools.

Ignore everything Leinart has done since the NFL, I am not talking about that, but what I am talking about is that Matt Leinart was potentially the #1 pick in the draft if he had come out after his senior year and yet he chose to stay in school. He threw an incredible amount of things away to do the college thing for one more year and people thought he was lazy by talking ballroom dancing for his only class and he is perceived as a SoCal party boy for his antics. Granted, some of this is his own doing and is a result of the location of the school he attended. Tyler Hansbrough has never even been spoken of as a top 10 pick in the NBA Draft, so he has less of a reason to leave school, and yet he is glorified for having the guts to stay in school and just be a kid. I could see an argument that Hansbrough should have gone pro after his junior year because he was never considered a top pick, so he should leave while he is still guaranteed a first round contract. So in a way Hansbrough had more reason to go pro than Leinart. Also, if you think Leinart was partying a lot more than Hansbrough, then you are naive. Leinart lives in SoCal and that is the difference. Chapel Hill, North Carolina has very few camera guys from TMZ hanging around.

If your favorite school signed a prospect in November, wouldn't you hope that prospect would stay four years, earn a degree, keep out of trouble and smash records? Wouldn't that be the perfect scenario? Of course it would! And really, that's all Hansbrough has done. But somehow he's still become the object of hate, for whatever reason.

Everyone wants this. Of course. If your team's biggest rival did all these things and got 100 articles written about him because of it, wouldn't you find it quite annoying? Hansbrough is a great guy but that is the problem everyone has with him...we get constantly reminded of this every time a game is shown and his spastic thrashings on the offensive end is referred to as "hard work" and never chalked up to the talent he has. Hansbrough is a talented guy and that is something that falls through the cracks when writers are talking about how hard he tries.

Yeah," Hansbrough replied, "But people are still going to hate me."

Perhaps.

But good luck trying to understand why.

No need to understand, Gary Parrish just wrote an article that helped exemplify it for everyone.

To quote one of my favorite Sopranos episodes in regard to Gary Parrish's question in the title about why everyone hates Tyler Hansbrough and his column that followed. (This quote was at the wake for Tony Soprano's mother and I am going from memory, but you get the point):

(Janice Soprano) "Maybe Tony, you can tell everyone why Mom kept all of your awards, papers, and drawings from when you were younger, but why I can't find a single thing that she kept around of mine...Even though everyone knew I had a incredible mind for spatial design, she did not feel the need to keep any of my stuff. Maybe you want to explain that Tony?"

(Tony Soprano) "You just did Janice. Wrap it up."

Gary just did a great job of answering why people hate Hansbrough.

My BFF, Gregg Doyel, thinks that Hansbrough should be on the 1st All American team and got screwed.

It won't just be Parrish, either. I'm hearing Hansbrough will be on the outside looking in on various All-America teams this year, which means college basketball got a whole lot better, or Tyler Hansbrough got worse. Or we're sick of him, which is the only conclusion in this nonsensical situation that makes any sense to me.

Or it could be that he is not one of the 5 best players in NCAA basketball. He is not even the best player on his team. That person is Ty Lawson. UNC can win without Tyler Hansbrough, yep it is true, the team would survive with Ty Zeller, Ed Davis or Deon Thompson on the floor at his position, but they can't win without Ty Lawson. Look, Hansbrough is great and deserved Player of the Year last year but this year there are too many players performing at a higher level. Sure, not being picked is going to motivate him and piss him off to where he tears up the NCAA Tournament with wonderful performances every night and the fact he did not make 1st team All American will get written about maybe 1,000 times, but its only going to increase the hatred for him.

For four years Hansbrough has been shoved down our throat by television. Dick Vitale loves him. All announcers love him. If Hansbrough wore a helmet and pads, he'd be Tim Tebow.

Hansbrough is the all time leader in FT made in the NCAA. For three years now (not this year) he has made a living jumping actually into other players and getting a foul called. He doesn't get the player up in the air or anything, he just jumps into them and throws up a shot and gets the foul call. He got away with it, so more power to him, but he got a lot of foul calls on the whole.

Ten more freshmen went in the first round in 2008. All those million-dollar babies, gone. But Hansbrough dominated when they were in school, and he's still here. And he didn't get worse. He is rebounding more, shooting better, blocking more shots, turning it over less and scoring almost three points more per game than he did as a sophomore, when he was a consensus All-American.

I actually think Hansbrough deserves to be 1st team All American. It is probably not helping him that his numbers are down from last year across the board, more than his popularity is actually hurting him. Generally voters like to see players progress from year to year and Hansbrough has played less minutes this year so his numbers are slightly down. He doesn't have to do as much for the team to be successful and it is showing.

Hansbrough didn't have any PlayStation games. He just checks in with something approaching 20 points and 10 rebounds, and he does it every time. But we've seen that before. Now, if he could put up 20-and-10 while balancing a rubber ducky on his nose ...

This is another reason why people hate Tyler Hansbrough. He gets credit for everything he does, even if the writer has to stretch a little bit to give him the credit. He has averaged 20-10 only once in his career and that was last year...and he got the PoY award in response to this. 8.2 rebounds per game is not "approaching" 10 rebounds, that is about 50 rebounds or 2 rebounds a game off the pace.

Griffin will be an All-American everywhere, including here at CBSSports.com, where he joins Pittsburgh's DeJuan Blair (15.6 ppg, 12.4 rpg) in the frontcourt. The rest of the first team is Davidson's Stephen Curry (28.6 ppg, 5.7 assists), Arizona State's James Harden (20.8 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 4.1 apg) and North Carolina's Ty Lawson (15.9 ppg, 6.5 apg).

Every single one of those players improved on his total numbers from last year and that must be what the voters are looking for. I would take James Harden off the list personally but I can understand why others do not do that...especially if that person wants a team with players at each PG, SG, SF, PF, C position.

There have been 13 players mentioned in this story alone. Any of them, in a weaker year for college basketball, would be a legitimate first-team pick. But only five can make it, so most of them will be left out. I'm understanding. Up to a point.
Again, another reason people hate Tyler Hansbrough. Just like Parrish, who has the policy of criticizing players who don't leave for the NBA but Hansbrough almost makes him re-think it, Gregg Doyel understands players get left off the first team All American squad and is usually fine with it, but thinks Hansbrough should be the exception to this rule. Hansbrough doesn't need a crowd at games, he has every journalist in the free world cheering him on.

That point being Griffin and Hansbrough. They're All-Americans. Period.

You are only exacerbating the problem. I don't dislike Hansbrough any more than I dislike any other UNC player but it is hard to feel that way when you read articles like this.

You need another article as an example of why people hate Tyler Hansbrough? I know you do. Here's one.

She sounded as only a member of the dance team at a Deep South flagship state university can. She had just enough brass in her voice -- a voice that will serve her well when she's managing accounts, analyzing financials or selling McMansions in five years -- to seem perfectly justified in her intrusion on the quiet time of a campus legend.

This writing is courtesy of Andy Staples. First off, North Carolina is not the motherfucking Deep South. If the South begins in Virginia, there are three states below it. Check out a map or an atlas or google "map of the United States" and see where it is located in relation the rest of the fucking United States, then re-write this sentence.

This cheerleader could be getting married to a successful person and raising children, telling the Women's Liberation Movement to go fuck itself, just because she goes to UNC doesn't mean Finance is the career path she will choose. I just wanted to give this person other options that don't involve a stereotype of women being successful and career driven if they graduate college from UNC. Or I could just be bitter and not like UNC. Take your pick.

"Come ohn, Psy-cho Tee!"

Seriously, that is his nickname.

North Carolina's all-time leading scorer wore the same expression he always wears before he pours another gallon of sweat onto the hardwood.

Right now I am having a cliche overdose. This sentence is the penultimate sentence on why people hate Tyler Hansbrough, because journalists write shit like this sentence about him all the time. All the time. If anyone doesn't dislike Hansbrough read this sentence three times. You will dislike him at the end of the third time. He averages 30 minutes per game, all of them hard fought, just like every other college athlete in the country. He just looks like he is working harder because he is spastic and overdoes absolutely everything. He probably gasps and throws his body up against the wall when he is taking a piss...just to make it seem like he is expending great amounts of effort.

I also wonder if Hansbrough is pouring his own sweat on the court in this cliche or sweat he has collected from other people?

"It's a hard game to play," said Hansbrough, who scored 17 points and grabbed eight rebounds.

Or as Gregg Doyel would say, he put up something approaching 20 points and ten rebounds.

Even though Jordan's presence somehow inspired Hansbrough to channel the spirit of Jordan's former Bulls teammate Craig Hodges -- Hansbrough made his 11th and 12th career 3-pointers in the first half

I am sure Michael Jordan's presence made Tyler Hansbrough immediately think of an obscure teammate of Jordan's, Craig Hodges, and Hansbrough was so inspired by this thought he started just making three pointers. It always happens like that. Hansbrough's brain is always working in the form of Six Degrees of Michael Jordan to get inspiration.

I am sure Andy Staples is a grand guy but the beginning of this article is exactly why people hate Tyler Hansbrough. Writers use cliched cliches to describe his effort level all the time and the love for him is never ending from writers. Also, North Carolina is NOT the Deep South...this irritates me greatly.

This guy explains exactly why others hate Tyler Hansbrough. He is of course able to do it more eloquently than I do.

First of all, style of play. It's worth mentioning. Watching Hansbrough is not fun or entertaining or aesthetically enjoyable. It's just ugly.

It is beyond ugly. Whether it is ugly jump shot, watching him glide across the lane turn sideways and throw up a shot in hopes of drawing a foul, watching him flop on the court when hit by an opposing player when the same contact doesn't prevent him from getting an offensive rebound, or his shot-put attempt at a layup, watching Hansbrough is ugly. He is also incredibly effective as well.

But that really doesn't get to the heart of the matter. The real reason why people loathe Tyler Hansbrough is much simpler, much less psychological. People dislike Tyler Hansbrough because the media loves him.

This, in a nutshell, is pretty much the entire truth. I also don't really like him because the media does portray him as a guy who does things the right way, yet he has a tendency to pout when a foul is called against him and he also tends to do borderline technical foul type antics when a call does not go his way. This past Sunday he got called for an offensive foul, screamed at the referee who made the call, and then held the ball under his arm as he walked down the court bitching the entire time. He also failed to draw a charge earlier in the game and convulsed his body on the floor in anger. Since Tyler Hansbrough does everything overblown, it was quite noticeable.

Shockingly the media never seems to talk about his tendency to pout when he doesn't get a foul call his way, they just think he is just being a competitor.

Dick Vitale loves him.

Understatement of the year. Of course what doesn't Dick Vitale like? This is the same guy who spends a good portion of a television broadcast actually not talking about the game that is occurring, so it could reasonably be said that he has never actually paid attention to what is going on when Hansbrough plays.

And of course Vitale is the worst offender; even as his supporters admit that Hansbrough's game likely isn't suited for the NBA, Vitale uses broadcast time to dare NBA teams to pass on the player. It's insane.

He did the same thing with J.J. Redick when even the most diehard Duke fan knew that any time an athletic guy could stay with Redick he was going to be shut down. Basically any type of NBA player would prevent him from getting his shot off and it turned out to be true in the NBA. Honestly, Sheldon Williams failing was more of a shock than Redick failing to Duke fans. As far as Hansbrough, he could be a contributor on a playoff team and there would be nothing wrong with that. I would use a late round 1st round pick on him, but the way Dick Vitale refuses to acknowledge any chink in the armor of these college guys is horrible analysis....which ironically is his job, to analyze.

when you start saying things that don't line up, visually, with what your viewers are seeing unfold in front of them -- you undermine the whole enterprise. Fans, whether rationally or not, turn that disconnect into disgust.

This is pretty much how it is with Tyler Hansbrough. I chalk it up to the announcers that networks like ESPN hire who don't necessarily feel like it is their job to call a game and then analyze that game, but to hype up the game so the viewer feels like they are watching the greatest game EVER. Dick Vitale is the absolute best example of this. He seems like a great person but he uses so much hyperbole when talking about players, when he is actually paying attention, he is pretty much unlistenable.

The unfortunate part is that Tyler Hansbrough can't do anything about the people who fawn over him. He is as helpless from stopping it happen as the public is from having to hear what a great player he is. This always seems to happen to white ACC players for some reason.

This hate doesn't come out of nowhere. It's not organic, and it's not grassroots. It's a response. If the next question is "A response to what," then you just haven't been paying attention.

The public can generally only take so much of someone else telling them how good something or someone is. I feel bad for Tyler Hansbrough in a way because he is a victim of his own success, much like others before him. He did so well so early in his career there is a kind of blowback in negative criticism. I, for one, will never dislike him more than I dislike any other UNC basketball player and that is my vow.