To the editor:

I have just read Bill Mayer’s column, “Injury will cost Kansas,” in the June 1 Journal-World and am shocked and dismayed at his cynical, shortsighted and mean-spirited comments.

Yes, Brandon Rush and many of his Kansas University teammates are majoring in basketball. The talent level that Bill Self attracts to KU’s team would make one assume that their post-collegiate years would include a shot of playing professional ball. Brandon Rush has never made it a secret that he has such aspirations. Like most other students in any field, he has come to college to hone his natural skills and abilities and to learn new ones so that he might better himself out of school.

To suggest that the medical costs to repair the knee injury of Brandon Rush will be a burden to KU’s basketball program is unkind at best. One should consider the millions of dollars that entered the coffers of the university that were, in good part, derived from the talents of Brandon Rush these past two years before begrudging that player’s access to his team’s medical benefits.

Scott Winters,

Lawrence