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Sidelines Kalani Simpson |
Frazier could have
avoided ‘The Chase’ONE thing I did learn in watching KITV's Thursday night investigative story of Herman Frazier's dual role with the Olympics and UH: Frazier's still got that sprinter's speed.
Keoki Kerr and his camera crew may be determined, but there was no way they could match a gold-medal pace.
Here is what we should have seen Frazier say, instead of watching him bolt for the door, leaving an in-hot-pursuit TV crew in his dust: "This was the arrangement that was negotiated when I was hired. My extensive involvement in the USOC is one of the big reasons why I was hired. The University of Hawaii is perfectly happy with my work. Ask my boss." (Big smile.)
Instead, we got The Chase, which did not look good for anyone.
(Even if it was great TV.)
Look, Frazier -- even if he does indeed have the best time-management skills of all time and can rifle through six meetings by 6 a.m. -- will be spending some significant time working on Olympic stuff. And there will be days -- perhaps sometimes several at a time -- when he will be out of town. Maybe more than my taste. Maybe yours, too.
But he seems to have hired good deputies, and UH knew the deal when it hired him. And UH decided the positive aspects of Frazier's association with the Olympics (always identified as the Hawaii AD) far outweighed any fact-finding trips that took him away from his desk.
Fine.
But Frazier has to know, if he is going to do both, it is an issue. One that can be won with smiles, but not sprints.
>> No, it's never good to lose out on a local prospect as promising as Kahuku's Jeremy Perry. But this long, strange saga may have ended as well as it could have for most (not all) of the major players.UH leaves the door open.
Perry, who looked very uncomfortable at Letter of Intent Day, keeps his sanity.
Oregon State gets a steal.
>> Michelle Wie is one of the few people in America for whom an invitation to a "60 Minutes" interview is good news.
Most react like ... well, you know.
>> Who said Wie playing in men's events would make the guys feel bad? After last week's Hawaii Pearl Open, there are now a bunch of players who can walk around saying they beat the golfer who tied the British Open champ.
>> News item: "Louisiana Tech ponders leaving WAC." Why is that a headline? Everybody ponders leaving the WAC.
>> Speaking of which, the Western Athletic Conference's 25-year All-WAC men's basketball team is one of the few anniversary teams that is a bad PR move.
All this does is remind everyone -- again -- of all the schools that are no longer with the league.
>> One Midwestern columnist writes that Hawaii's Bracket Buster foe Southern Illinois "would finish upper division in either the Big 12 or Big 10."
>> For everyone who avoids attending UH football games because of "traffic." That's nothing. Now, Sunday's Pro Bowl -- THAT was traffic. I think I took 45 minutes to go 50 yards.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com
