The news of DJ Carton’s decision to step away from the Ohio State basketball program came in waves, a pair of them in quick succession.
At 9:05 p.m. on Thursday, a team spokesman released a relatively vague statement announcing the freshman point guard “will be taking some time away to deal with personal matters.”
Thirteen minutes later, Carton dropped a bombshell that nobody forced him to drop. He made himself vulnerable in a way he didn’t need to. He could have been silent, allowing Ohio State’s statement to do the talking, knowing that as a college basketball player he didn’t owe the public anything else.