Pitino may have let Kevin Ware down

All the air seems to have gone out of the Kevin Ware drama for now, perhaps just another 24-hour news story.

Rick Pitino, showing where his priorities lie, putting Ware in the University of Louisville’s basketball game against Hartford with just over 11 minutes to go in the first half. He would play six minutes in the game.

Afterwards, Pitino would criticize the media for jumping on a report by a Kentucky-biased blog for Ware’s use of a friend’s car. The blogger, an individual seemingly happier with UofL losses than his own team’s wins, who feeds the hatred of UK fans toward Louisville, stirring the pot every chance he gets.

He’s an individual who has been separated in the past from analytical positions at CBS Sports.com and Insight Cable for various reasons, most likely we suspect for his obvious bias and incompetence. Sadly, WHAS Radio has made the blogger an integral part of its UK basketball and football coverage.

But the larger issue here may be how Pitino has handled Kevin Ware’s inability to correctly manage the situation in which he was directly at fault.

Sadly, Pitino may have missed an opportunity to teach Ware a valuable lesson in personal responsibility, dismissing any concern about the speeding violation and the missed court date. For all we know, it’s still another instance of a pampered athlete being forgiven by his coaching staff. Certainly not a unique situation at UofL, given all the similar incidents that have occurred in Lexington in recent years.

A multiple game suspension would have been more appropriate, a punishment that Ware probably would have accepted without question.