Don Cherry’s Nazem Kadri Twitter Rant
11 years ago
If anyone wants to get a blue print on how to destroy someone, just follow the Toronto Maple Leafs— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerCBC) October 2, 2012
It’s fair to say that Don Cherry and Brian Burke don’t really get along. In fact, it was only last March that Cherry accused Burke of trying to get him fired, a charge CBC officials eventually denied.
Perhaps the largest particular bee in Cherry’s bonnet, especially now that he doesn’t have Ron Wilson to kick around anymore, concerns the Maple Leafs’ treatment of once prized prospect Nazem Kadri. Today Cherry took to Twitter and lambasted the original six club over "fitness-gate" and the clubs continued mistreatment of Kadri.
Read on past the jump.
Here’s the rant in full (the embedded tweet that leads off this post was actually the poetic conclusion of Cherry’s rant):
I have never in my life seen a kid treated like Nazem Kadri by the Leafs. It started in his first training camp where he led the team in..— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerCBC) October 2, 2012
scoring but was blasted for his defensive faults. They don’t blast Kulemin who scored 7 goals. They give him 5 million dollars. Now the…— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerCBC) October 2, 2012
Marlie coach comes out and rips Kadri in the newspaper saying he doesn’t eat properly.Imagine headlines saying he’s chubby and fatso.— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerCBC) October 2, 2012
I laughed pretty hard at, "saying he’s fatso." I like that Don Cherry tweets exactly the same way that he talks.
Anyway, the Leafs and Dallas Eakins’ ham-fisted treatment of this delicate issue was somewhat overblown in the media, in my view. While some in the Toronto Media saw it as a political shot across Gary Roberts’ bow, I tend to believe Eakins’ explanation that he was just giving an honest appraisal of Kadri’s performance mid-way through his fitness testing.
Still, Eakins’ use of the word "unacceptable" was ill-advised and gave the club another in a string of PR black-eyes – to go along with the public spat between the organization and Francois Allaire, and Cody Franson signing a "full season contract" (wink, wink) with Brynas IF of the SEL.
We’re left to wonder while looking over the Maple Leafs news from the past couple of weeks, if maybe Cherry wasn’t even talking about Kadri when he suggested that the Maple Leafs have a perfect, "blue print on how to destroy someone." Perhaps he was talking about Brian Burke’s reputation.
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