Basketball Twitter rises in support of Maori Davenport
Basketball Twitter rises up to fight an injustice.
When Rutgers commit Maori Davenport was called to the principal’s office, it wasn’t because she misbehaved in class or mouthed off to a teacher.
It was because something completely out of her control happened, ruling her ineligible for her senior year of high school basketball. She had previously been issued a stipend check by USA Basketball for less than $1,000—but USA Basketball failed to run it by the Alabama High School Athletic Association first.
USA Basketball realized they made a mistake, contacted the AHSAA right away and Davenport sent the check back. It’s only because the check was cashed, despite sending it back, that the AHSAA still has not budged on giving Davenport her senior year back.
And as a result, the women’s basketball community is up in arms and now rallying behind her. The Twitterverse has heard from the likes of Brian Agler, Natalie Achonwa, Mechelle Voepel, Jay Bilas and even the WNBA has voiced its support.
Has Maori Davenport been reinstated by the Alabama High School Athletic Association yet?
— Brian Agler (@brian_agler) January 4, 2019
this is absolutely RIDICULOUS! Davenport has done NOTHING wrong and even tried to fix an error that wasn’t her fault... yet @AHSAAUpdates is still taking away her senior year. smh. https://t.co/Rr2FzRWZYY
— Natalie Achonwa (@NatAchon) January 4, 2019
When are reasonable adults going to step in and fix this? It’s absurdly punitive, pointless and cruel. https://t.co/CMVmO32cja
— Michael Voepel (@MAVoepel) January 4, 2019
The Alabama High School Athletic Association should be embarrassed and, frankly, ashamed of itself over this ruling. The AHSAA acts as if the players exist for the AHSAA, and not the other way around. Just awful. Maori Davenport did NOTHING WRONG. @AHSAA_hoops https://t.co/OCKBY1S1Iv
— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) January 4, 2019
The WNBA urges the Alabama High School Athletic Association to reinstate Maori Davenport. Let her play the rest of her senior season instead of being penalized for an honest mistake made by others. https://t.co/CVgHNSqVAZ
— WNBA (@WNBA) January 4, 2019
There’s even a change.org petition circulating the Internet with nearly 9,500 signatures already.
As any reasonable person can point out in this situation, Davenport did absolutely nothing wrong. Thankfully, nothing impacts her eligibility at Rutgers, but you still feel for her and hope the AHSAA overturns its decision sooner rather than later.
It’s somewhat surprising they haven’t yet. And you have to wonder what it will possibly take for them to make an exception to this particular ruling—if that were to ever happen. As Bilas suggests in his tweet, it’s concerning that an organization, who is supposed to be looking out for its athletes, is actually doing the exact opposite here.
The Alabama High School Athletic Association should be embarrassed and, frankly, ashamed of itself over this ruling. The AHSAA acts as if the players exist for the AHSAA, and not the other way around. Just awful. Maori Davenport did NOTHING WRONG. @AHSAA_hoops https://t.co/OCKBY1S1Iv
— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) January 4, 2019
But even more disappointing, the AHSAA has stayed quiet on the situation. It looks bad enough they are punishing a kid who literally just opened a piece of mail that was sent to her, but not providing more of an explanation, either? Davenport deserves more than that.