Many an pro ball player — or a middle-aged former athlete — will talk fondly of the great coaches who helped nurture them, challenge them, and bring out the best in them. But you don’t hear many stories of players who talk fondly about a coach who shoved them, threw a ball at their head or called them a name that would end a politician’s career and lead a celebrity or star athlete who said it to make a public apology.

And so Rutgers has fired basketball coach Mike Rice after an ESPN story showed footage of Rice’s coaching…technique. USA TODAY:

Rutgers University has fired coach Mike Rice less than 24 hours after ESPN’s Outside the Lines aired video footage of Rice physically abusing players, the school announced on Wednesday morning.

“Based upon recently revealed information and a review of previously discovered issues, Rutgers has terminated the contract of Mike Rice,” the school statement read.

Rice met with athletic director Tim Pernetti on Wednesday.

“I am responsible for the decision to attempt a rehabilitation of Coach Rice,” Pernetti said in a statement. “Dismissal and corrective action were debated in December and I thought it was in the best interest of everyone to rehabilitate, but I was wrong. Moving forward, I will work to regain the trust of the Rutgers community.”

The footage, revealed by former director of player development Eric Murdock, featured Rice throwing basketballs at a player’s head, kicking a player and using a homophobic slur directed at a player.

Rice was suspended for three games in December and fined $50,000 after athletic department officials saw video footage of abuse. Pernetti said he spent “hundreds of hours” talking to those involved in the program to determine what happened.

Here’s an ESPN report with some of the video:

The issue here really goes beyond the way Rice treated his players in these videos. The bigger issue is what impact his “techniques” had on the lives of the young players who were in his anger-line-of-fire.

The New York Post’s Mike Vaccaro says Rutgers should have fired Rice earlier:

The video isn’t just shocking, it’s appalling.

There, unmistakably, despite the grainy quality, you see an angry little tyrant named Mike Rice acting like a petulant, profane child, putting his hands on the athletes who play basketball for him at Rutgers, kicking them, throwing basketballs at them, assaulting them with homophobic and sexist slurs.

This isn’t just a man who deserves to be fired; he needs professional help. This isn’t just the momentary fury that inhabits coaches at all levels, it’s the rantings and ragings and ravings of an out-of-control despot. The one thing he never actually screams is this: “PLEASE FIRE ME AT ONCE!” But the message is pretty clear to anyone who sees it.

Anyone, that is, but Tim Pernetti, the athletic director at Rutgers, the man who hired Rice, the man who saw this video evidence long before anyone else did, the man who, if he had a shred of decency and an inkling of decorum, would have honored Rice’s subliminal plea and fired him at once.

But Pernetti didn’t do that. Seeing the same indefensible behavior everyone else has now seen, hearing the same vile verbal spatter, Pernetti’s idea of discipline was to suspend Rice for three games in December, fine him $50,000, assign a monitor to, in essence, baby-sit his coaching brat at practice.

That’s what he did. That’s all he did. Yesterday, attempting to get out ahead of the story before ESPN could, Pernetti showed the video to reporters, which would have been an appropriate prelude to announcing Rice’s dismissal. Instead, he told those assembled reporters he wasn’t firing Rice….

….But who holds Pernetti accountable for this profound absence of common sense and decency? Who holds Pernetti accountable for seeing what we have all now seen and being, perhaps, the one person alive who thought, “Three games! That’ll show him!” …

He points to past problems that created controversies involving coaches at Rutgers, then writes:

And now this. And here’s the thing: This shouldn’t have been a tough call. Firing a coach for wins and losses is a subjective thing at a place like Rutgers, which hasn’t been to the NCAA Tournament since 1991. But when you witness the behavior, it’s easy. When you hear Rice use terms like “fairy” and “f—-t” — especially at a school such as Rutgers, where a freshman jumped off the George Washington Bridge a few years ago after a classmate had videotaped and publicized a gay encounter — it isn’t even close.

The problem is: some consider it close…until the public gets wind of what is is they’re considering and why they have to consider it.

Which is what apparently happened here.

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