... in which the Blob tries to explain why reactions to incomplete information are frequently knee-jerkish, because the reactions themselves are therefore incomplete.
In other words: Context matters.
In further other words: Maybe Alabama basketball coach Nate Oats is not the self-serving look-the-other-way opportunist many of us (including me) originally thought.
This upon reading a ESPN piece by, among others, the Blob's friend and former colleague Michael Rothstein, which puts together a timeline of exactly what happened that fateful night in January when Jamea Harris was shot to death and Alabama star Brandon Miller was pulled into its vortex.
Two men, including then-'Bama teammate Darius Miles, were charged with capital murder; Miller was not. Which is why Oats declined to punish his best player.
Which is also why a lot of people (including, again, me) sneered that, well, gee, Alabama's got the best team it's ever had, and Miller is a big reason why, and, you know, March is coming ...
A lot of people (me, etc.) concluded this meant 'Bama was a lot more interested in winning basketball games than worrying about minor annoyances like, you know, guns and dead 23-year-old mothers and such.
But then a lot of people -- OK, me -- read the ESPN piece, which includes a timeline of events constructed from police and witness testimony. And we got us some context.
You can read it here. But as a public service to my valued Blobophile(s), let me break down the highlights as they involve Miller:
* Three Alabama players -- Miller, Miles and Jaden Bradley -- headed out for a night on the town at a local restaurant-bar, along with a friend of Miles'. The line to get in was so long Miller, who along with Bradley had a car, decided to go eat somewhere else.
* An hour or so later, Miles texted Miller and said he was ready to be picked up. In the meantime, Miles' friend, Michael Davis, got into a silly argument with Harris' boyfriend because Davis was dancing in the street outside their car. Words were exchanged, and at some point, Davis, who already had several firearms violations on his sheet, asked Miles to go get the gun Davis knew Miles owned.
* By this time, Miller was already driving back to pick up Miles. So investigating officers think it's highly likely he never even saw Miles' text to bring his gun to him. All he was doing was going to pick up a teammate.
* When Miller arrived, Miles and Davis retrieved the gun from under a pile of clothes in the backseat. Again, it's unclear Miller even knew it was there.
* A few minutes later, as Miller sat in his car across the street, Davis emerged with the gun, walked up to Harris' vehicle and opened fire. Harris' boyfriend -- who also had a gun, of course -- fired back, wounding Davis, who continued shooting wildly. Two rounds went through Miller's windshield, after which he wisely got the hell out of there.
He's been a cooperating witness with police since. In fact, you can reasonably surmise that a lot of the narrative investigating officers put together, and testified to, came from Miller and Jaden Bradley.
This narrative is quite different from the one a lot of people (me, etc.) have been selling, which is that Miller knowingly delivered a gun used in a fatal shooting to the shooter and his accomplice.
It also explains why Miller was never charged, and why Oats didn't suspend him.
Now, you can still wonder why an Alabama basketball player had a firearm, although Oats immediately kicked Miles off the team. And you can wonder why three 'Bama basketball players were out partying after midnight, although college students do that all the time, and, you know, they're college students, too.
What the Blob finds hard to wonder now, with more context, is what exactly Miller did wrong.
He went out with teammates. He left them to get something to eat. He drove back to pick one of them up. And then he got caught up in a horrific event with which he had nothing whatever to do -- and of which, in fact, he was lucky not to have been a victim himself.
Wrong place, wrong time. That's Brandon Miller's piece of this.
You can, of course, question whether or not Miller knew Miles had stashed a gun in his car. And if he did, you can reasonably question his judgment.
But, surprise, 19-year-olds do not always have the best judgment. And this is America, after all. Guns, as our peculiar fetish, are just part of the landscape now. As Miles told his mother when he purchased it, he bought it for protection because someone had once pulled a gun on him.
I wish I could count the times someone (or someones) ended up dead for no reason because someone else bought a gun for "protection." Unfortunately there aren't enough hours in the day.
There also aren't enough hours in the day to wonder how long Miller will carry all this with him.
Quite awhile, I imagine. Another victim of gun violence, you might say.
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