Musings: No handshake for Pitino here
St. John's coach Rick Pitino has instructed players not to shake opponents' hands after basketball games. Credit: AP/Pamela Smith
My family has been connected to St. John’s University for decades, earning various postgraduate degrees, and after receiving my undergraduate degree at St. John’s, I had a wonderful career teaching at my alma mater.
We have always been proud of St. John’s, which is why the decision of basketball coach Rick Pitino to not allow the traditional handshake between teams after a game is so perplexing.
Is it not part of sportsmanship that, after you have played to the best of your ability, you acknowledge the results of the game through this timeless tradition?
When a sportscaster said that Pitino instructed his team not to participate in shaking hands with the Providence Friars before exiting the arena, my disappointment was overwhelming.
Being both a student and an employee during the era of Lou Carnesecca as coach, I could not help but wonder whether the late coach would ever have made such an unsportsmanlike gesture.
— Susan Broderick, Westhampton
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