UConn Huskies head coach Dan Hurley is far from perfect, but the venomous criticisms hurled at Hurley this season reflect media personalities who have fallen out of touch with the magic of sports.

Sports aren’t real life. Sports heroes aren’t real heroes (people like firefighters and teachers are), and sports villains aren’t real villains (child abusers are).

Yes, there are colossal, real-life implications stemming from sports — billions upon billions of dollars of revenue and thousands of real careers for athletes, coaches, trainers, journalists, etc.

But ultimately, once the whistle blows, everything that happens inside the lines is meant to be an escape from real life, not a reflection of it. 

Society needs sports because society needs escapism almost as much as anything else. We crave a break from our mundane lives, which is why we tune in to the game after a long day of work.

Sports are not life and death (war is), but we love to be fooled as much as possible into thinking they are for a couple of hours, because that makes the escapism more acute. As such, we love building up dominant sports figures as gods imbued with immortal talent.

We don’t look for moral guidance from these figures as much as we seek evidence that they truly are gods, and that maybe we aren’t fooling ourselves.

When Michael Jordan announced to the whole world in an interview that he was better than Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, we loved him for it. We didn’t call him arrogant, and if we did, we loved it, because gods are supposed to be arrogant.

We don’t look back at Muhammad Ali’s boastful antics as a negative, but rather as a shining example of confidence, greatness, and ultimately, high-class entertainment.

But suddenly, when the best coach in college basketball says he’s the best coach in college basketball, people have a problem with it.

No, Dan Hurley is not Jordan or Ali (far from it), but if you had to pick the Jordan or Ali of college basketball coaches right now, the answer is Hurley 10 times out of 10.

When analysts complain about Hurley’s “on-court” antics or call them “disgusting”, it’s coming from the completely false premise that athletes and coaches are supposed to act like normal, upstanding citizens inside the lines.

They’re not, and in fact, the more that athletes and coaches suspend their real-life persona and transform into something completely new once the whistle blows, the more we cherish them.

It’s why Hurley’s on everyone’s minds of late — he’s great entertainment. 

The fact that Hurley is by all accounts a perfectly nice and charming guy off the court only strengthens the argument about the importance of transforming.

No one benefits from athletes and coaches upholding some sort of etiquette when they should otherwise be escaping into their other selves. That would be like telling Joaquin Phoenix to maybe take it easy and not get too deep into a role.

Let’s remind ourselves that people are allowed to transform when they step on the court — it’s the point of the whole thing.

And if referees are not giving techs to Hurley because they’re afraid about losing assignments, well then those referees are placing themselves above the integrity of the game, which makes them the problem.

If you’re annoyed by Hurley, T him up. But it’s crazy to expect gladiators to be polite once they enter the ring, and sports would be a valueless endeavor if that was the standard.

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