After getting blasted on national television during one of Jeff Van Gundy’s typical rants, Brooklyn Nets swingman Joe Johnson admitted that he shouldn’t have been laughing on the bench while his team was being romped by the New York Knicks. Per the NY Daily News:
“(Van Gundy’s) probably right. We shouldn’t have been laughing,” said Johnson, who was spotted on television smiling and laughing with teammate Paul Pierce multiple times over the course of 3½ minutes in garbage time of a 29-point defeat at the Garden two weeks ago. “I can’t remember honestly what Paul said, but it had to be super funny for me to laughing and for us to losing the way we were losing.”
The scene on ESPN prompted Van Gundy, a television analyst, to declare on the air, ““I don’t think it’s too much to ask that you’re taking it seriously.” He later said it was insulting to Nets fans and was “a horrible look for the league.”
““If you’re a fan and you’re paying, you’re living and dying with the Nets right now and home-court advantage, to see two of your best players in Pierce and Johnson cackling over a long period of time on the bench, that’s going to be disconcerting,” Van Gundy said. “And I think players have to understand that.”
Johnson said such criticism comes with the territory.
