Sacramento Kings coach Mike Brown can’t talk about basketball after mass shooting in Maine

Kings coach Mike Brown was in no mood to talk about basketball following his team’s 130-114 victory over the Utah Jazz in Wednesday’s season opener at Delta Center in Salt Lake City.

Brown, the reigning NBA Coach of the Year, opened his postgame news conference with an emotional reaction to the news out of Lewiston, Maine, where at least 22 people were reportedly killed and dozens more injured in a mass shooting.

“First thing I’d like to say, and I don’t know everything that’s going on — I’m not that smart — but I know we as a country have got to do something,” Brown said. “I’m walking over here and somebody says there was a mass shooting in Maine with 22 dead at a grocery store, at a fricking grocery store, man. If that doesn’t touch anybody, I don’t know. I don’t even know what to say. That is absolutely disgusting and it’s sad. And it’s sad that we sit here and watch this happen time after time after time after time and nobody does anything about it.”

CNN reported the shootings occurred at the Sparetime Recreation bowling alley and Schemengees Bar & Grille Restaurant. Other reports indicated the shootings also involved a Walmart distribution center.

“It’s a sad day,” Brown said. “It’s a sad day for our country. It’s a sad day in this world, and until we decide to do something about it, the powers that be, this is going to keep happening and our kids will not be able to enjoy what the United States is about because we don’t know how to fix a problem that’s right in front of us. It’s sad. I feel for the families.”

Brown was asked how he feels about the way the NBA uses its platform to address tragedies when they occur.

“You commend (commissioner) Adam Silver and the players who lead this league, Chris Paul and Lebron James to name a few who stand up and use their platform the right way, and you hope that we continue. Obviously, it hasn’t done much because for something like that to happen tonight, it’s just sick.”

Brown declined to discuss the game after his team opened the season with a win over the Jazz.

“I don’t even want to talk basketball,” Brown said. “We played a game. It was fun. Obviously, we won, but if we can’t do anything to fix this, it’s over. It’s over for our country for this to happen time after time.”

Kings forward Harrison Barnes also had a poignant message when he heard about the shooting after the game.

“It’s devastating news to hear something like that, and your prayers are with the community, the people who lost loved ones, but I think as a country we have to get our gun crisis under control,” Barnes said. “It’s more than simply just saying, OK, we can enact one policy and that will simply change what’s going on. These are becoming more frequent, more lethal, more devastating, and we have to get it under control.”