Lakers guard Steve Blake and his wife received some serious threats via Twitter after the Lakers’ Game 2 loss to Oklahoma City on Wednesday. It’s the negative part about the way social media works, where anonymous lunatics can lash out at those in the public eye without consequence.
The events affected Blake and his family obviously, but they also had an affect on Lakers head coach Mike Brown.
Speaking before Game 3 on Friday, Brown struggled to find the words to express his feelings on the matter, before speaking emotionally and angrily about the way Blake and his family were attacked.
“We understand the passion and the love that people have for this team, and I respect that,” Brown said. “I respect you guys saying what you want to say about me and Steve, and beating us up; that’s you guys’ job, and you respect people saying that stuff. But … everybody has family. You don’t want to touch that. That’s the only thing, and it gets me emotional right now. I just feel bad for his family, I feel bad for him. That just shouldn’t be a part of life, to have somebody want to do stuff like that, attack your family. Frickin’ kids, man? That’s … no. I don’t like that.”
Brown believes Blake will be able to play through it, but reiterated just how tough it is for a player to have to deal with something like this.
“He handled it I guess the best he can,” Brown continued. “You guys wouldn’t like that. Nobody would like that. You kind of feel helpless out there, because all these people — you don’t know who did it. And people know when we’re leaving, and when we’re in town. That’s tough to deal with, man. Tough … It’s a shame. It’s a doggone shame.”
Thunder head coach Scott Brooks spoke more briefly on the matter, but he seemed to take it just as seriously.
“It doesn’t make sense,” he said. “It is a game, and it is an important game for both teams. But it’s not that important.”
