Professional athletes deal with plenty of unnecessary comments towards them from unruly fans. An issue which can only be exacerbated by playing in a market as large as New York.
Recently, NFL kicker Graham Gano of the New York Giants spoke about the amount of hateful messages he has received from fans. Some of the messages even go as far as sending Gano death threats, or wishing harm upon himself, with one fan going as far as to tell the veteran kicker “get cancer and die,” Gano told ESPN’s Jordan Ranaan.
In light of this, New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson was asked about the level of hate comments that he himself has received, and how he deals with it personally. Brunson has been in the spotlight for essentially his entire life, coming from a father who played in the NBA, being part of two National Championship teams in college, and now entering his eight season in the NBA, and fourth with the Knicks.
“It’s definitely crossed a line a couple of times,” Brunson said. “[They have] said some pretty messed up s—t. The way I deal with stuff like that, I have my circle, I have my family, they keep me level-headed – when it’s positive, when it’s negative. I have a very close circle that I turn to when I start to get doubts, or I start to get nervous or see stuff like that.”
“It’s tough. I really don’t wish that on anybody. I don’t really understand why people think it’s alright to press send when s—t is hateful,” he added.
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