The Sacramento Kings’ season-opening victory wasn’t the primary topic on head coach Mike Brown’s mind Wednesday night.
Instead, his thoughts lay thousands of miles to the East, where details of two shootings at a Lewiston, Maine, bowling alley and bar were emerging. A massive manhunt is underway in the state for Robert Card, described by authorities as an “armed and dangerous” person of interest in the shootings. In a Thursday morning news conference, Gov. Janet Mills said 18 people had been killed and 13 wounded.
“First thing, I would like to say I don’t know everything that is going on,” an emotional Brown told reporters after the Kings beat the Utah Jazz 130-114 in Salt Lake City. “I’m not that smart, but I know we as a country we have to do something.”
He continued, “That is absolutely disgusting and it’s sad. It’s sad that we sit here and watch this time after time after time and nobody does anything about it. It’s a sad day — it’s a sad day for our country. It’s a sad day in this world. And until we decide to do something, the powers that be, this is going to keep happening. And our kids aren’t going to be able to enjoy what the United States is about because we don’t know how to fix a problem that is right in front of us.”
Brown echoed comments by NBA coaches Steve Kerr and Gregg Popovich after other shootings, and lauded players like Chris Paul and LeBron James for speaking out, but “obviously, it hasn’t done much because for something like that to happen tonight is just sick. It’s just sick. I don’t know what else to say.”
His team’s first win wasn’t something he was remotely interested in discussing.
“I don’t even want to talk basketball. We played a game,” Brown said. “It was fun. Obviously, we won. But if we can’t do anything to fix this, it’s over. It’s over. It’s over for our country to have this happen time after time.”
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