Wisconsin center Frank Kaminsky says he’s “over” vanquished opponent Andrew Harrison calling him the n-word.
In a press conference after Kentucky’s 71-64 Final Four loss Saturday, Kentucky guard Andrew Harrison, who is black, seemingly uttered a racial slur about Wisconsin star Frank Kaminsky, who is white, and recently was named the Naismith College Player of the Year after having been chosen the first Wisconsin player ever to be named AP Player of the Year. Just after a reporter asked Kentucky’s Karl-Anthony Towns, “Karl, could you talk about Kaminsky and what if anything is unique about defending him?” Harrison muttered what sounded like “F*** that n*****.”
After the brouhaha that followed, Harrison reached out to Kaminsky to apologize. Kaminsky tweeted, “He reached out. We talked about it. Over it. Nothing needs to be made out of it.”
Roughly half an hour after Kaminsky’s tweet, Harrison followed with a series of tweets: “First i want to apologize for my poor choice of words used in jest towards a player I respect and know.” “When I realized how this could be perceived I immediately called big frank to apologize and let him know I didn’t mean any disrespect.” “We had a good conversation and I wished him good luck in the championship game Monday.”
Kentucky spokesman Eric Lindsey said, “We have no comment until we have had a chance to evaluate it.” Kentucky coach John Calipari stated, “These are great kids and do dumb things at times. They say dumb things like we all do, things that they regret later, and you apologize for them. These are young kids. They’re 19 years-old. In that moment, of trying to make a historic thing, they probably did some dumb things. But I love these guys, and I know what they’re about.”
Meanwhile, Wisconsin has a chance to win its first national championship on Monday night since the year the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.
Kaminsky is the 4th player in the last 20 NCAA tournaments to average 20 points and 8 rebounds in the tournament before playing in the title game. The others are Shane Battier, Carmelo Anthony, and Sean May.