Before cameras on cell phones and the advent of Flip cams, normally what happened in a gym stayed there. There was no export to YouTube or Facebook option, and if something went down, it was between the people involved and whomever was there to witness it. So when rising senior Steve Blake and incoming freshman John Gilchrist got into it on July 2, 2002 during a pickup game at University of Maryland’s Cole Field House after Gary Williams Basketball Camp, word travelled fast, but that was about it. Nine years later, we have video.
In 2004, Eric Prisbell of The Washington Post wrote a feature on Gilchrist, who was a junior at the time, mentioning the fight:
During the 2002-03 season, Gilchrist served as an apprentice under Blake, the former point guard who had helped the Terps win the national title the year before. That year, Gilchrist said, he got into a fight with Blake during what teammates described as an offseason pickup game, an altercation that taught Gilchrist two things. He learned the intensity with which Maryland players compete, and he learned the scrutiny that Maryland players are under. Word of the fight trickled onto the Internet, and Gilchrist soon got calls from players around the country wanting to know what occurred.
Now we know…
What do you think?
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