We’re quickly closing in on an era when friends won’t ask friends about their spouses, or jobs or children.
They will ask, “How’s your brand doing?”
It’s all about branding these days. It’s why models also want to be movie stars that want their names linked to charities and other ‘A’ list stars. It’s why rappers hang with athletes that hang with politicians.
In about 50 years, we figure the name on the back of every jersey for every athlete will read “Brand” with his or her number and a scan image. “Don’t hurt the brand,” will be the marketing version of the physician’s creed, “First do no harm.”
The St. John’s brand was harmed and tarnished Tuesday night in a 66-40 loss at Notre Dame. With 1:46 left in the worst loss of the season for the Johnnies, Sir’Dominic Pointer of St. John’s and Cameron Biedscheid got into an ugly fight in which Pointer clearly threw the first punch.
Both players were ejected, which carries an automatic suspension for the next game. Amir Garrett, the only player on either team who left the bench, also was ejected. The Big East ruled yesterday it would take no further action against Garrett, making him eligible to play in the Red Storm’s regular season finale on Saturday in the Garden against Marquette.
“Dom apologized for losing his composure and will serve his penalty by missing the final game against Marquette,” coach Steve Lavin said late Tuesday night. “We have to demonstrate more maturity than we did tonight. We want to play with intensity but also use intelligence in order to play a winning brand of basketball.”
That message needs to get through. Because based on e-mails from some fans, the scene in the Joyce Center is not acceptable, nor is it new.
“Among the legitimate basketball institutions in the NCAA lineup, St. John’s reputation is probably in the bottom fifth of all universities,’’ wrote Alan Hirsch of Port Washington.
If true, that’s worse than playing in the CBI. In covering St. John’s for The Post for more than a decade, there is no question that some basketball players during that span were not worthy of wearing the red and white.
That’s not the case with this squad. It is, for the most part, a respectful, well mannered group. But all it takes is one lunging right hand on national TV and the St. John’s brand gets tossed on the bottom shelf.
That means everything from fund-raising to ticket sales to apparel deals take a hit. These considerations are more important than ever as St. John’s, along with its Catholic school brethren, break away and try to make a go of it as a non-big time football playing league.
“The University expects its student-athletes, coaches and athletics personnel to conduct themselves appropriately in representing St. John’s both on and off the court,’’ the school said in a statement.
“We regret the incident at Notre Dame and will not tolerate this unsportsmanlike behavior. Coach Lavin, his staff and team have continued a tradition of integrity associated with our men’s basketball program and will deal with this isolated incident accordingly.”
But here’s the rub: It doesn’t appear to be isolated. Garrett was in the middle of some serious smack talk at the end of the Red Storm’s 68-56 loss at Georgetown on Feb. 2. Yep, he nearly got into it with the Jabril Trawick on the postgame handshake line when players are supposed to utter nothing more than the perfunctory, “Good game.”
Lavin has not been blind to this issue. Last Thursday, he suspended star guard D’Angelo Harrison for the rest of the season for conduct detrimental to the team.
Harrison, Garrett and Pointer are not bad kids. They are hard-nosed competitors, the type of players who always have worn the St. John’s jersey. They need to remember that poor conduct tarnishes the St. John’s brand which therefore tarnishes them.
‘‘That,” Hirsch wrote, “is the first step on the path back to St. John’s return to respectability.”