Instagram does not seem like a great place to spend a lot of time if you’re the head coach of an NBA team. But for Byron Scott, The Gram is part of his way of life. So much so, that at the end of last year, he vowed to stay off of his account because angry fans were hurling a barrage of attacks at him in the comments.
“That’s why I don’t go on my Instagram and all that stuff, because as [she] would tell me, a lot of them are [ticked] off,” Scott told ESPN last November, referring to advice given to him from the family member who handles his account. And he was doing so well, too. The three-time NBA champion’s feed has been a decent melange of inspirational messages, personal event promotion and pictures of friends and family around his life. As an Inglewood, Calif., native coaching his former team in his home town, presumably it’s a decent way for him to connect to the community.
Months after his announced Instagram boycott, Scott is back in the comments — and this time is threatening to fight fans.
Unless he’s looking to meet people in Temecula, so to speak.
So, not only is he apparently checking his Instagram, he’s also digging deep to find naysayers. The post in question is a video of Scott boxing at a local gym last week. The former Lakers guard quite famously fought one of his own teammates, Mychal Thompson, so his proclivity toward using his fists is nothing new.
But it’s definitely unbecoming for a coach in the league to be bickering with people on social media, nevermind suggesting to take things to a level of violence. Then again, it has been a pretty awful year for the Lakers — they’re struggling with irrelevance, Kobe Bryant’s retirement sideshow and finding a way to develop young players. Nonetheless, it’s not a good look for a 54-year-old who is technically paid to be a leader of men, to be beefing over cellphone videos.
Byron Scott showing more fight on Instagram than he's shown as a head coach. Praise be. https://t.co/tmxKY8vBNE
— Justin Russo (@FlyByKnite) January 25, 2016
The Lakers have the league’s second-worst record at 9-37.