Basketball has been a point of pride at MSU for years. Even as the University of Michigan handed us our collective asses in football, basketball season was a nationally-recognized time when MSU athletics performed at a high level, year in and year out. The bar was set high enough that the way Izzo did things has been called, “the right way.” His players might not have always been the best of the best, but his system made them work. The reactions to his potential departure are a testament to the ideals he has embodied at MSU: hard work, honesty and generosity, to name a few. I wouldn’t say we are overreacting. It is reasonable for fans to do as much as they can to keep a living legend. I suspect the reaction would be no less visceral if Duke University men’s basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski was pondering a leap to the NBA.

That being said, I don’t think I’ve bought into Izzo’s demigod status. That doesn’t mean I don’t recognize and respect what he has brought to MSU, but I don’t feel particularly incensed about the current situation. Should Izzo leave, the basketball team will still exist. I concede that I will feel more trepidation because Izzo is no longer at the helm, but that would eventually pass. For me, the program succeeding despite Izzo’s departure would be the ultimate mark of what he has accomplished here.

My point is, as integral a part as Izzo has been to my experience with MSU basketball, it will still exist if he leaves. The university also will still exist if Izzo leaves. That’s why I wonder about people who insist MSU do everything it can to keep Izzo. I’m sure university officials have done all they can, but MSU is a university first and foremost. It has other things to worry about. The Cleveland Cavaliers are a professional basketball organization. That is all they care about and MSU can’t compete.

I don’t feel angry about Izzo taking his time considering coaching the Cleveland Cavaliers. It shows that he is putting serious thought into a big decision. I applaud that approach. It might leave me somewhat anxious, but sometimes it is unavoidable. Writers such as Pat Caputo, senior sports reporter and a columnist for The Oakland Press, think if Izzo is going to leave, he should make the choice sooner instead of later.

I gathered the reasoning behind Caputo’s idea is to show some kind of deference to the fans, university and program who are emotionally invested in his decision. Caputo also states, “Or if he stays, and this dance with the NBA and/or other college programs is to continue, then Izzo should cease holding himself up as such a bastion for this state and the school.”

I’m not so sure it is Izzo holding himself up as a bastion for the state and the school, so much as it is fans and sports writers. It’s the press and fans saying MSU is the face of this or the ambassador of that. Izzo is a lot of things and it is not Izzo’s fault he didn’t live up to all the expectations created for him. The roles he might have come into are derivatives of his work ethic and success.

I think the only thing he owes us is a careful consideration of what he means to this community. His career at MSU might end up as his defining legacy, but it doesn’t have to be the only one. He has built up enough goodwill here to give him the benefit of the doubt in whatever decision he makes.

I don’t know Izzo personally, but if he is as much a competitor as he claims to be, I submit this quote — attributed to Bruce Lee — as the closest I can come to understanding his thought process: “There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.”

David Barker is the State News opinion editor. Reach him at barkerd@msu.edu.