I must agree with you Dierks. As much as I love ESPN and can not live without them, they are still a member of the media...and the media can be brutal.
They can really persuade people to feel a certain way about others. Like I said in my original post in this thread, the way he mind fucked people was brilliant. It turns out that a lot of it was against the rules and probably not very elegant, but he hustled some people pretty bad. He kinda made them look foolish...he's not the only poker player who does that.
Over all, I kinda think he was a dick at that tournament, but he seems like a decent guy and I think he learned a lot from that tournament...plus he got rich as hell.
And he did end up paying his friend half of his winnings...he said in an interview he was never NOT going to pay him. The media made it seem like he wasn't going to and his friend kinda over-reacted. But, he made good on his word. That's definitely respectable.