During Thursday’s playoff practice for the Oklahoma City Thunder, head coach Mark Daigneault peeled back the curtain on his life outside of the gym.
When discussing how it’s his job as the head coach to be emotionally neutral during high-intensity environments such as the playoffs, Daigneault said he needs to stay composed for the betterment of the squad.
“The games are emotional, playing the game is highly emotional,” Daigneault said. “For this team, my job is to be the coolest head in the room. The fans are emotional, (the media) is emotional. You guys are tweeting everything.
“And the game is emotional. It should be emotional for them. If they play with passion, it should be emotional. They should be pissed when something doesn’t go well. They should be happy when it goes well. I think it’s our job to make the next best decision and strip the emotion away.”
It was a well-said response with a bit of an eyebrow-raising moment when Daigneault explicitly mentioned X, formerly known as Twitter. The Thunder have always talked about blocking outside noise, so it was interesting to learn that doesn’t necessarily mean ignoring it.
Daigneault was asked about his Twitter usage. He said he scrolls through the app as a skeptical consumer but never actually tweets or has a photo of himself on his account. He refused to reveal the account’s name to keep it a secret.
“How else are you supposed to get information? I’m not like reading a newspaper every morning,” Daigneault joked.
Daigneault also said Thunder players constantly message tweets to him to examine. He said there is one specific player on the roster who does it more than most but wouldn’t reveal their identity.
“If you had two guesses, you’d probably get it right,” Daigneault joked.
This was an interesting little interaction with Daigneault. It reveals a small look at what the Coach of the Year winner does in his spare time and shows he also consumes social media content like the average person.
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