All the Warriors and Kings wanted from their Sunday night was a basketball game at Golden 1 Center that would entertain fans and conclude without injuries. A reasonable ask, right? But life and death in America has a way of intruding.
For early Sunday morning, a couple blocks away from Golden 1 in downtown Sacramento, another in our wave of senseless and indiscriminate gun violence sent scores of bullets whistling through the air, leaving hundreds running down sidewalks and streets seeking cover.
The death toll as of Sunday afternoon stood at six, with 12 wounded, at least four critically.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Bay Area and California sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr, a longtime advocate for more restrictive gun laws, spent his pregame news conference expressing sorrow for those directly affected, and for our damaged society, but exhibited sheer contempt for those leaders who lack the conscience and compassion to steer America toward a better way.
“You think about all of the common-sense laws we could and should put in place,” Kerr said, “if we had any guts, if our government had any guts, if people put others in front of their own career paths, in front of their own re-election campaigns, in front of their own propaganda to manipulate people, it’s right there in front of us.
“This happens in churches, it happens in schools, in happens right downtown here in Sacramento.”
Mass shootings also happen at places of employment and at concerts. That was the venue Sunday morning in Dallas, where 11 people were shot, one fatally, during a concert – a couple hours before gunfire from multiple individuals, according to witnesses, scattered those on the streets of downtown Sacramento.
Golden State Warriors
Find the latest Golden State Warriors news, highlights, analysis and more with NBC Sports Bay Area and California.
“At some point,” Kerr said, “I would hope that we would actually think about our fellow citizens and do something about it, instead of play politics. We have more regulations for driving a car than we do for carrying a weapon.”
There have been, according to multiple resourcing outlets, more than 100 mass shootings – defined as four or more victims – in the United States over the first 93 days of 2022. More than 13,000 victims, including more that 4,000 fatalities and more than 200 children under 11.
Meanwhile, our fascination with celebrity culture spawns endless discussion and debate in the wake of Will Smith slapping Chris Rock in public.
This is our way of life?
This is our way of life. And, for too many, death.
“We’ll have a moment of silence before the game. It’s the right thing to do, to have a moment of silence,” Kerr said. “But I’ll be honest, it’s probably the ninth or 10th moment of silence that I will have experienced as coach of the Warriors when we mourn people who have died in mass shootings.
“I don’t think moments of silence are going to do anything. At some point – at some point – our government has to decide: Are we going to have some common-sense gun laws? It’s not going to solve everything, but it will save lives.”
Roughly 16 hours after a tragedy sent at least 10 ambulances speeding toward a two-by-four block area of downtown Sacramento, Kerr and his Warriors took the court to face coach Alvin Gentry and the Kings.
The games go on.
Kerr, however, was so disgusted that he declined to take basketball questions.
“It’s just time,” he said. “It’s time for us to do something about it, instead of having another moment of silence and then send thoughts and prayers.
“I don’t think it’s appropriate to talk basketball at this point, so maybe we’ll just connect postgame. Thank you.”
Understand the emotions of a man who as a teenager, in 1984, lost his father to gun violence. Kerr understands that these tragic events change everything for the families and the friends and the neighborhoods.
Guns and bullets and dead bodies and shattered families minimize so much of what we cherish, from awards shows to quiet nights at the movie theater to sporting events. If there are times when standings feel irrelevant it’s because, in the grand scheme, they are.
And, once again, America is asking itself two questions that have gone unanswered since 1776.
How much bloodshed is enough?
Does anybody of political influence really care?