Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Josh Ho-Sang vs. the World continues

06/26/2014 at 12:41am EDT

I had a feeling that this wasn't going to end well. The Toronto Sun's Steve Simmons interviewed controversial prospect Josh Ho-Sang in a Thursday morning-published article, and ESPN's Craig Custance followed Simmons with an equally fascinating conversation, but the whole problem with Ho-Sang is that there is always a "last word" involved.

While Simmons did himself no favors in the "editorializing" department by engaging in a radio yelling match with the captain of the FancyStats movement Sportsnet's Tyler Dellow on Wednesday, he appears to have ticked off Ho-Sang--and his general manager--as well, as the Windsor Star's Bob Duff explains:

Josh Ho-Sang wants to make one thing perfectly clear. He has no issues with Windsor Spitfires general manager and co-owner Warren Rychel.

“Just make sure that everyone in Windsor knows that I love playing in Windsor and I love Warren,” Spitfires forward Ho-Sang said over the telephone. “I have a really good relationship with Warren. He and Bougie (Spitfires coach and co-owner Bob Boughner) have done so much for me.”

If you read a Sun Media article about Ho-Sang and the upcoming NHL entry draft, you might think there were some serious issues afoot between him and his GM. In the article, Ho-Sang, who is black, was quoted as saying that Rychel made comments regarding his play that had something to do with the colour of his skin.

“When I start dangling, my GM calls me a Harlem Globetrotter,” Ho-Sang was quoted by writer Steve Simmons. “Why am I a Harlem Globetrotter? Analogies get related to basketball all the time with me. I don’t play basketball. I’ve never played basketball. I’m a hockey player. Why are they doing that?”

Ho-Sang insists that wasn’t what he meant at all.

“I was talking about associations (made to his play), not how I was treated,” Ho-Sang said. “Warren and I will joke around about me being a Harlem Globetrotter. I think it’s funny and I told him that. (Simmons) asked me about the comparisons I had. I said, ‘Some of the harsher ones are . . .’ and then I went on to say some of the less harsh ones are like what Warren says. (Simmons) kind of took that out of context. He took quite a bit out of context.”

Continued with some comments from Rychel, as well as this:

Ho-Sang isn’t a rookie when it comes to interviews. He understands things can get lost in translation.

“They twist stuff and it’s also Toronto, right,” Ho-Sang said. “You can see the traction the paper is getting, so it’s not like it didn’t work. I don’t want to go back on everything the article said. The most important thing is Warren.”

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About Kukla's Korner Hockey

Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

From breaking news to in-depth stories around the league, KK Hockey is updated with fresh stories all day long and will bring you the latest news as quickly as possible.

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