Rating:

3.0 (6 votes)

Daniel Orton is getting ripped by some True Blue Fans and media. It not only hardly seems fair, but it makes no sense.

There are those who are asking questions because Orton didn't play much at UK, when obviously he could have logged a lot of minutes at just about any other school. And, inspite of the fact that he spent most of the season on the bench, many expect to see him picked in the first 15 in the upcoming NBA Draft.

The controversy started when NBA Draft.net did an interview with the 6-foot-10 inch center.

"NBADraft.net: With the lack of opportunity this past year at Kentucky, if you had to do it over again, would you have gone to a different school?

Daniel Orton: If I had done it differently I would have gone to Kansas. But with the way things have worked out, in the end, no I wouldn't have done anything differently."

To me, that seems obvious that Orton was saying that Kansas was his second choice.

If you are looking for a much stronger comment from Orton, at the Chicago NBA Pre-Draft Camp, when asked if regrets the choice of going to Kentucky, Orton told LEX 18.

"Ah not at all," said Orton.

"I was happy I was there. I was with a great group of guys. It was an amazing group of guys. I truly believe I was blessed to be in that situation."

That doesn't mean part of this season wasn't a big struggle for Orton.

"This past season I lost a lot of confidence in myself. That's one thing as soon as I got my confidence back, I was ready to go."

When LEX 18 asked Orton if not playing effected his confidence?

"That, but more so a lot of things went on through out the year and I got away from who I am and not staying in the gym and staying focused. That kind of took my confidence away too."

Through the years, a number of UK basketball players, and this goes back to when I started covering UK in the early 1980's have told me that at times, almost every UK Basketball player has thought about leaving.

Rajon Rondo is on the cover of Sports Illustrated this week. He is very loyal to Kentucky. It's been well documented that he and Tubby Smith battled. He thought about leaving. So what? He's also glad he didn't.

How many of us work at a job where they thought, at one point and time about looking for another job?

Ripping Orton makes no sense.