Eric Church Makes a Bad Call

Canceling a Concert to Watch Hoops

"North Carolina basketball star forward Brady Manek has opted out of tonight's first-ever Final Four semifinal match-up against archrival Duke so he could see country singer Eric Church perform a concert in San Antonio. The 6-9, 230 pound forward, a key player in the Tar Heels March Madness run, said that his family from Harrah, Oklahoma, had scored front-row center tickets for the Church concert, and as longtime devotees and members of the country singer's fan group, known as "the Choir," it was too good an opportunity to pass up.

"This is the most selfish thing I’ve ever asked my team to do: to accept my Saturday night plans and diminish our chances of beating Duke and winning a national championship so that I can have this moment with my family and music community. However, it’s that same type of passion felt by the people who fill the seats at our games that makes us want to be part of a crowd at a concert of this significance."

Those two paragraphs attributed to Manek are not true.…