Richard Jefferson Calls Out ESPN Colleague Jay Bilas For His Ludicrous Take About Arresting Court Stormers

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Jay Bilas has taken control as captain of the outrage mob that wants to see court storming banned in college basketball. In order to stop people - mostly tuition-paying students - from running onto the court, Bilas recently suggested they all be arrested. Richard Jefferson, a colleague of Bilas' at ESPN, rightfully called him out for his ridiculous take.

Bilas, a former Duke star himself, offered up his idea that law enforcement should get involved after fellow Blue Devil Kyle Filipowski was caught in the middle of the court storming that took place at Wake Forest over the weekend.

"One time, all you have to do is, once they’re on the court, don’t let them off. Just say, ‘You’re all detained,’ and give them all citations, or arrest them if you want to. And then court stormings will stop the next day," Bilas said on ESPN's ‘First Take’ on Monday.

Countless videos showing Filipowski seeking out contact and being the first to shove a Wake Forest fan on the court have made the rounds, but Bilas appears to be conveniently ignoring them. The latest injury status for Filipowski is that he's just "not himself" despite acting in the moment as if he were injured in war.

Jefferson, along with everyone else with eyes and a brain who doesn't have ties to Duke, believes Bilas' opinion on getting rid of court storming is moronic.

"That’s gotta be the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard in my entire …," Jefferson said on ‘NBA Today’ on Monday. "Did he say detain 10,000 people? Did he say give 10,000 people citations?"

"But this is about college basketball, this is about college football. To say something, and I love Jay Bilas – a legend in this game – that is asinine to suggest that. Because for me, when you look at this, yeah, get your players off the floor. … But this is a part of college sports, it always has been, for what? Forty years? Fifty years?


"We get it. But let’s not get old and get the ‘Get off my lawn, get a citation, let’s arrest them all.,'" Jefferson continued. "Do we know what we’re talking about when we say these things?"

You may think storming the court or rushing the field is goofy, but that goofiness is exactly what makes college sports so great. College athletics are based on emotion, and have been for 100 years. Taking some of that away would do nothing but damage what makes college sports, college sports.

Jefferson understands that aspect as well. He went on to explain that if fans paying tuition want to celebrate an underdog win against blue-blood teams, they have every right to storm the court and take part in the win.

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Mark covers all sports at OutKick while keeping a close eye on the PGA Tour, LIV Golf, and all other happenings in the world of golf. He graduated from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga before earning his master's degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee. He somehow survived living in Knoxville despite ‘Rocky Top’ being his least favorite song ever written. Before joining OutKick, he wrote for various outlets including SB Nation, The Spun, and BroBible. Mark was also a writer for the Chicago Cubs Double-A affiliate in 2016 when the team won the World Series. He's still waiting for his championship ring to arrive. Follow him on Twitter @itismarkharris.