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Herb Pope is a tough kid

I’m not going to tell you that you should root for Herb Pope. Not after the multiple, below-the-belt sucker punches he threw at a Texas Tech big man in last year’s NIT.

But before you make the decision to hate him, I urge you to read this article from SNY’s Adam Zagoria. If that’s too much, how about just this block quote:

On his left arm is a foot-long scar, evidence of the night in March 2007 he used his forearm to block five gunshots -- four at close range -- directed at him during a party in his hometown of Aliquippa, Pa.

Or this one:

Neither of Pope’s parents is involved in his life. Both spent time in jail and as a child he moved around, living with relatives and in foster homes before his aunt, Amy Pope-Smith, took him in during the tenth grade. He reportedly made peace with his father after the collapse, meeting with Herbert Pope in the Beaver County (Pa.) Jail.

And definitely read this one:

Pope has another scar across his chest from his latest brush with death, the one that required heart surgery to deal with a birth defect -- an anomalous right coronary artery -- that Seton Hall head coach Kevin Willard said they “usually only find in an autopsy.”

“To me, I really don’t see a problem with it,” Pope said. “Obviously, it being a birth defect, it’s kind of like it was going to happen at some point. And I can talk about it so it doesn’t bother me. Some people that it happened to, they’re not here to talk about it.”

Pope may not be the easiest guy to like. But before you hate him, understand where he is coming from and what he has been through.

Its easy to criticize without having lived his life.