It wasn't that long ago when a GIF of Grayson Allen getting  his leg in the way of a Florida State player made its way around the internet,  Naturally, every Duke hater in America jumped on the sophomore, not to mention some unexpected alumni who seemed to get on their high horse.  And for the record, GIFs are video image files that are compressed to reduce transfer time, which in turn makes for about four seconds max of video.

The point I want to make is how one play was taken out of context. After all, most of the people complaining about the trip and who are trying to hang Allen from the highest tree had probably never even played the game of hoops.  And even if they had, probably not at a high competitive level as the Atlantic Coast Conference presents.  In short, not only were they not taking the whole game into context but they were ignoring the spirit of competition.

Oddly, even main stream media outlets grabbed hold of the GIF and  they ran with it.  I suppose it is not surprising in that today's on-line media is looking more and more like the TMZ in that sensationalism and exaggeration rule for the mere click-bait.

As it turns out, Grayson Allen is human.  Yes, he makes those amazing acrobatic plays and yes, the majority of his GIF's are of sensational dunks.  Perhaps, because he plays for Duke, that automatically makes him a target for haters and those haters may well have gotten to him in the loss at Pitt.

Others will contend that he is simply a dirty player for that brief video clip fits their agenda.  In short, partial evidence is all that is needed for haters to hate.   Far too many said that was all that needed to be seen, but most of those people were not exactly objective.  I will say this again later, but there is no questioning that the play was wrong on Allen's part but not worthy of the vicious criticism he has received.

"Well, there should be attention because he is one of the best players," said Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski when asked of the attention Grayson Allen had been receiving of late.  Of course, the person asking the question wasn't referring to that and it drew this response from the Hall of Fame Coach.  "The confrontations were media driven and not necessarily print media driven."

While I am not privy to the exact mean-spirited insults which came Allen's way in a recent loss to Pitt, it apparently was bad and enough that Krzyzewski spoke to it.  "There is no question that had an impact on our team at Pitt because we were all distracted by that level of attention to that level of activity."  He continued saying more emphatically, "At some levels we were amazed. Totally amazed and I am sure Grayson was too."

Krzyzewski went on to say that "We weren't us," against Pitt but didn't blame the loss on just that.  "When we got back, we just said look, we all have not handle everything right for the Pitt game.  We've talked about Grayson, We've talked about Pitt, but let's quit talking about all that stuff."

Instead of wallowing in all the media hype surrounding Allen, Krzyzewski started to make his players pay attention to other aspects they could improve upon.  As for Allen, that meant him hearing that he had no fouls against Pitt which pointed to a lack of enough aggression in his coaches view.

"We need you to be you.  Don't allow people to steal you from you. That's not right and we're not going to let that happen," said Krzyzewski to his star sophomore.

But back to Allen and the fall out from his being nationally chastised on many levels as being a dirty player.  Despite the fact that the ACC almost immediately said there would be a reprimand and no more action would take place, the media had helped to start a "Hate Grayson," faction that will likely never go away.

With that said, let me say that of course Allen's decision was not a good one in the two incidents we speak of and he deserved a reprimand.  But a kid in college. his age, got so much more atention than he deserved. Instead of looking at how hard he plays the game, some just talk of him being  dirty player. But no matter how much vitriol is thrown his way, there is no fan base that really would not love to have a hard nosed player who goes all out on every play on their teams roster.  The real problem though, is as hated as he might be to some, more hate is reserved for the four letters D-U-K-E.

One has to take into context the whole game when passing such dire judgement as they have on the youthful Allen.  What was been going on off ball and or during the whole game must come into account for a more balanced view.  On TV, we see the scoring and on ball stuff and rarely pick up on the smack talking and constant posturing spirited competition brings.

Krzyzewski continued on the subject by saying, "Some of the people are taking shots.  Come on, man. It was a flagrant I at best.  I am not knocking Louisville  but we didn't even know who hit Grayson. So, don't let anyone target you.  Grayson was targeted.''

What Krzyzewski was likely speaking too was that other players around the country have been involved in plays but haven't received the same level of hyper attention.  He went on to say, "What he (Allen) did was it wrong, yes.  But has there been anyone else targeted in our league. No way, no way. You want me to go through a game, I can find something." I think it's fair to assume that this was again referring to the oh-so popular GIF, which apparently now are accepted in reporting as the say all, be all in some cases, while lacking of a more informed level of objectivity.

It should not be strange to anyone that Krzyewski is defending his star player.  During the win against Wake Forest, several students shouted out, 'We love you Grayson," at various moments in the game.  There were also several signs of appreciation for Allen in the crowd.  The word is out, that Allen deserves a little adoration.

''People get on their high horses  ... come on. The kid didn't punch anybody, he's a great kid, plays his butt off.  We are not making it an excuse but he gets hammered and he hammers,'' stated Krzyzewski.

Many have mentioned that there was a referee right on top of the play in the game against Florida State which there was. ''The referee at the end of the Florida State game understood what was happening before that and did a veteran thing, likely saying you two guys get the heck out of here.  Get out of here, said Krzyzewski.

What Krzyzewski is saying is that he is not going to allow these two plays to define All American candidate Grayson Allen if he can help it.  Fortunately for Duke fans, Allen seems to have recovered nicely from the criticism as  well in that he scored 30 points in his last outing.

Next up for Allen and his Duke teammates will be their arch rival, North Carolina. Another chapter featuring the best yearly match up in the land will unfold and in this one game there will be nothing but love for Allen.  But beyond that, as unfair as it might seem, he may well have to take on the role as the next so-called hated Duke player. In reality that title will be attained not so much for his perceived dirty play.  Instead, the real reasons people will hate Allen is for how hard he plays and how good he is.

Grayson Allen is first and foremost an All American and the most improved player in the nation from a year ago.  And there are many who simply choose to recognize that for it speaks more to the essence of who he is in reality.