Remember Khem Birch? You know, the McDonald’s All-American that was supposed to be the Pete’s next big thing? The huge forward with a yellow streak in his hair? The kid that cried at practices because they were too physical? The freshman that transferred from Pitt because he didn’t get what he wanted?
Well, he spoke on Pittsburgh radio for the first time since he decided to leave the Panthers and some of the stuff he said just made him sound like…well…a *****. The PPG had the whole scoop today with some pretty ridiculous quotes from Birch.
First of all, it seemed like he was surprised when he said when certain players didn’t have a certain number of stats by halftime, they would just bum around the locker room because “they didn’t get what they wanted.”
Hey kettle, I’m not sure if you’re aware of this but you left the reigning regular season Big East champions because you weren’t getting your way. Big deal if Ashton Gibbs was pissed that he only had six points or Dante Taylor only had two rebounds at the half; at least they didn’t just give up and leave the team.
Birch wasn’t shy about letting it be known that his plan was to play for Pitt one year and then jump to the NBA to get paid. He just wanted to use Jamie Dixon’s reputation as a stepping stone and Dixon don’t play that.
Just because you’re an All-American in high school doesn’t mean you automatically get a starting job in college. This isn’t the pros, it’s not like Pitt was paying Birch millions of dollars to ride the pine; his scholarship cost the school just as much as Malcolm Gilbert’s.
Birch thought he should be starting. A lot of people wanted him to be starting, myself included, if he was producing – he wasn’t. You have to earn your minutes with Dixon. Birch didn’t get what he wanted, so he left.
He said another reason he just had to get out of the Burgh was because none of his teammates liked him and they were “threatened” by him. He must have been talking about his hair because there’s no way the Panthers felt threatened by his four points and five rebounds per game.
Playing the All-American card again, Birch made it seem like he was the odd man out because he was successful in high school.
The only line that could possibly hold true for were the other freshmen forwards…sooo Durand Johnson was jealous of Birch? Why would any guards feel threatened by a big man they could feed down low? I’m pretty sure guys like Gibbs, Patterson, Robinson, Taylor and Woodall weren’t threatened by a kid who could help them get back to the Big East championship game. And do you really think Zanna even heard of a McDonald’s All-American in Nigeria?
On top of all that, did Birch think we had forgotten about his menstruation-filled practices? The kid was reduced to tears because the practices were just too tough for his fragile 6’9, 220-pound frame. His knuckles got bloodied and he got pushed around, and he just couldn’t hack Pittsburgh basketball…so he left.
It sounds like this kid is just living in a fantasy world. All of the things that he ******* and moaned about were things he was guilty of. If he wants to accuse his former teammates of this crap when he speaks with any UNLV media when he enrolls there that’s one thing but does he know that here in the Burgh, we saw how all of this unraveled?
This is the last we’ll talk about Birch, unless of course he pulls a Coach Carter and comes crawling back to Dixon, admits he was wrong, and begs to come back to the team. So yea, this is the last you’ll hear us talk about him.
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