BYU coach Roger Reid apologized to the parents of prize basketball recruit Chris Burgess Tuesday morning for comments he made after the player told him he would sign with Duke instead of BYU.
According to BYU athletic director Rondo Fehlberg, Reid called Burgess' parents, Ken and Sandi, in California to explain and apologize for the things he said to their son when Burgess called Monday afternoon to inform him of his decision to attend Duke.Burgess was quoted as saying, ". . . Roger made me feel worse than I already did. I'm a 17-year-old kid, and he said I let nine million people down. He said I was letting down the (LDS) prophet and the apostles. I didn't ask for the responsibility."
According to Fehlberg, "Roger has spoken to Chris' parents and apologized to them for the apparent misunderstanding. Roger feels like he might have been misunderstood in all this. He didn't intend to speak for the prophet or the church. According to Roger, he was supportive of Chris and expressed his personal disappointment because of how important he would have been to his program and to those who identify the program with the church. He's embarrassed and disappointed about the problem the quote has caused.
". . . One of the things I counsel my coaches on is that communication is not what you said, it's what is heard. People sometimes hear things different that we intend them."
Reid did not return phone calls.
Reid and Fehlberg met Tuesday morning in a previously scheduled meeting to discuss other matters, but Fehlberg did raise the issue of Reid's comments. "We did discuss it," said Fehlberg. "I meet with Roger regularly, and we had some things we needed to cover which were on the agenda before any of this. But clearly we did discuss this as well . . . I'd just as soon that those things hadn't been said (by Reid)."