STEVIE CLARK AND CONSEQUENCES

Stevie Clark's mom just went on the air with Jim Traber of the Sports Animal (WWLS). While defending her son as a good kid and saying he would have to deal with her when he gets home, she proceeded to publicly question the harshness of the punishment.

I don't know exactly what happened to Stevie or the circumstances around it, but I'm pretty confident of one thing...

He wouldn't be in this predicament had he not taken an action.

My son complains about his "consequences" all the time. "Not fair" is the most common refrain.

My simple response is ALWAYS, "That may be, but you don't control the consequences. You do, however, control your behavior."

Life is a brutally efficient teacher, and if we don't obey some simple rules it can dole out some pretty harsh lessons. Sometimes certain folks must meet these moments in order to get the message, because they weren't listening to the much less serious red flags that they passed along the way. Come at it from a position of "celebrity," and they will see it discussed and debated publicly...more stuff they have no control over.

Marcus Smart has been down that road. I imagine a whole bunch of student-athletes have traversed the same path. We all have.

Athlete, student, both, neither, the same old cliche applies...

"Life is about choices."

Regardless of what we think about the consequence, one fact is indisputable...

"My actions put me in this position."

This can often be the hardest lesson in life to fully learn. We all have those moments where we want to blame someone or something else. But it doesn't work. We can never escape our choices, we can only get lucky, hope the lesson does not cost us something too valuable, hopefully we learn from it, then move on. Some of us will be fortunate enough to have those around us who will help steer us in the right direction.

Let's hope Clark, and anyone else who finds themselves in such circumstances, looks back on that moment and says,

"Man, was I lucky that happened to me."