During the Duke Blue Devils’ 79-71 victory over the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, Duke point guard Grayson Allen was sent flying into the courtside media seats. It drew a foul, but wasn’t considered a dirty play at all.
However, what many didn’t know at the time is that Allen landed on the laptop of StarNewsOnline’s Brett Friedlander. He reported on Twitter that he wouldn’t have a column up on the game because his computer was completely destroyed and joked about being willing to accept any donations.
FYI to my followers. I won't be filing a column from the #Duke game tonite. Grayson Allen landed on my computer & it is broken beyond repair
— BFriedACC (@BFriedACC) March 2, 2016
I will gladly take donations toward a new computer. Seriously. This is an absolute disaster for me professionally.
— BFriedACC (@BFriedACC) March 2, 2016
What Friedlander didn’t expect, however, was for the Cameron Crazies to respond to his joking request. Duke fans started flooding his Twitter feed offering to help pay for a new computer.
@starnewsacc If people (such as the Cameron Crazies) want to donate, how should they go about doing so?
— Angela Wang (@AngWang24) March 2, 2016
https://twitter.com/Tono1411/status/704914936892432384
@starnewsacc a dollar from each of us would more than cover it…although I would look into a rugged design for Cameron Indoor
— sylvie (@sylvierose21) March 2, 2016
Friedlander woke up to many more messages like those and talked about how he was very touched by their generous offer. He then went on to say that he couldn’t take their money because he knows they will need it to pay off their college loans soon.
From his blog on StarNewsOnline:
“I was floored this morning to wake up and find my Twitter timeline jammed with mentions from Duke students offering to take up a donation to help offset the cost of a new computer. (I am not a full-time employee of the Star-News and as an independent contractor I’m responsible for my own equipment).
I couldn’t possibly take money from those kids. I’m the parent of two college graduates and I know they’re going to need every penny to pay their college loans soon.
But I was moved to tears by the gesture nonetheless.”
This is certainly a cool thing for the fans to do. I am sure Friedlander won’t have much of a problem getting a new computer, but it’s still nice to see that the fans are willing to help out in anyway they can.
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*Featured Photo (above) credit to USA TODAY Sports