Lakers head coach Byron Scott seems to be Public Enemy No. 1 in the basketball world these days. Most of it is merited with the team at 2-14 on the year as Scott provides a never-ending litany of questionable rotation decisions, head-scratching quotes in the media, and the overwhelming impression that he’s but a laughable parody of an NBA coach. But sometimes the anti-Scott backlash can get a little out of hand, particularly with the rabid Laker faithful.
Over the weekend, Scott revealed that he doesn’t even check his Instagram account, which is maintained by a family member, anymore due to negative comments from angry Laker fans.
“There’s been a lot of angry fans,” said Scott per ESPN’s Baxter Holmes. “She says she’s trying to hold her tongue and not respond. And I tell her, look, don’t respond back to anybody. Because she’s family, she takes it personal. And I don’t read it because I know me — I take it personal and I might say something and I don’t want to get into that with people.
“That’s why I don’t go on my Instagram and all that stuff,” Scott continued. “Because as [she] would tell me, a lot of them are pissed off and hot and all this and then you’ve got some that are very supportive that say, ‘Hey, we know it’s a process. We know it’s going to take a few years.’ But this is L.A. You want to win right away.”
You can check out Scott’s account for yourself here. Some of the comments left on his photos are more brutal than Nick Young’s shot selection.
Nothing good can come out of feeding the Instagram trolls, so kudos to Scott and his family member for holding their virtual tongues.
Still, the fact of the matter is that Scott is just not cutting it as head coach of the Lakers, and with the unforgiving win-now Los Angeles mentality he was alluding to, it makes for the perfect storm for some Laker-fans-by-day, keyboard-warriors-by-night to go on the attack.
At the end of the day, the Instagram firestorm, though it can border on excessive and classless at times, is a symptom of a much greater issue. Give Scott credit for tuning out the noise and focusing on his job, but he needs to do it not because of some knuckleheads on social media but instead because he’s simply not doing a very good one right now.
H/T CBS Sports
