The World According to 19-Year-Old “Knuckleheads”

[original photo via Rich Sugg, Kansas City Star]“Good luck, Randy Wittman,” said a sports columnist, with a rumbling, internal chuckle (probably), and a wistful shake of the head (pure speculation on my part). That sobering line was pinned unceremoniously to the end of a Washington Times piece by veteran columnist Thom Loverro about 19-year-old Wizards draft pick Kelly Oubre.

Patronizing well-wishing was an appropriate bedrock for an article that never quite got out of the substratum of humility policing that professional athletes, new and old alike, often receive from writers. In the days after a new face shows up on the conveyor belt of professional sports, before any games are played,…