Jay Wright Retired As A Legend At 60 Years Old - Stop Blaming The Transfer Portal. Stop Blaming NIL. College Hoops Is Not Dying.

By now we all know the deal. Jay Wright retired basically out of nowhere and will be replaced by Kyle Neptune. We covered all of that in the story above. However, because Jay Wright is 60 years old. Because Jay Wright is a college basketball legend. Because Jay Wright was one of the faces of college basketball, especially with K and Roy out the door, everyone wants to make this about something bigger. 

Let me go on a little rant here. Stop blaming the fucking transfer portal and NIL on every single goddamn thing that happens in this sport. It's lazy. It's mostly factually incorrect and it just shows you don't remember college sports really forever until a few years ago. 

Was Jay Wright burned out? Perhaps. Maybe he just wanted to spend time with his family like he said. Maybe he's just a legend at 60 years old who had nothing else to prove and wanted to get out. How many other people would do the same? But I saw a lot of the uppity national writers, I saw fans and everyone in the middle blame the transfer portal and NIL. I don't want to give the writers clicks because I think their takes suck ass and not worth it, but they are out there. Uhh, the same transfer portal that Nova didn't deal with? Weird how everyone forgets that little part of the equation. Nova lost Cole Swider to the transfer portal. You think Jay Wright is losing his mind over that? I don't think so. He also didn't bring anyone out of the transfer portal. The transfer on the most recent team was Caleb Daniels - who has been with the program for a few years now. 

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Let's also remember that transferring isn't new. Somehow people forgot all the transfers in years past. The portal is simply a place that people put their name, it's not some new thing. Also remember there are more college basketball players than ever in the game. That's what happens when you get a couple free seasons because of COVID. I know people who like to blame the transfer portal refuse to acknowledge that, but uh yeah that's a major thing. Weird how people leave that out who like to blame the portal as if it's working against the NCAA. 

And then finally there's the sport. No college basketball is going to die because Jay Wright retired. He's 60 years old, he retired. It happens in every single sport. Is it a loss? Sure. Of course any time you lose a big name it sucks. But guess what? Nova fans are still cheering for the same jersey. Shit, Hubert Davis made a title game in year 1 after Roy. I didn't hear people talking about how the sport was dying because of that. It's almost like college basketball will always be the same. 

The transfer portal and NIL aren't hurting the game. Stop with the lazy ass takes. Stop trying to blame everything on that. Sometimes a dude just retires as a legend. Hard to blame a 60-year old.