What is over the line and what is acceptable motivation?

The question is on the minds of many sports fans after Cal men's basketball coach Mike Montgomery gave one of his players, Allen Crabbe, a shove to his chest during a timeout.

As a sports fans I would have to say this was rather aggressive, and you can see Crabbe's is caught of guard just a bit. I'm not saying this should be common practice, but you have to know your players, and Montgomery apparently thought the old 'Xs' and 'Os' weren't cutting it.

After Crabbe pulled himself together, with the help of his teammates, he scored 14 of his 23 points including an impressive ten points over the final four minutes.

If Montgomery gets overly physical again, maybe it's worth revisiting, but it seemed to work, so let's move on. Although, the coach should probably sit down with his player and explain why he used this physical motivation, along with an apology...maybe (and, not a public one - a private man to man conversation).

 

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