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THE NEWS CONFERENCE — Whether you are a sports reporter or a political correspondent, a lot of people tell you a lot of things every day.
Sometimes, the two worlds even collide — like they did during the New England Patriots’ recent White House visit.
Here are some of our favorite things said in official press settings from the past week.
Gronk for press secretary?
The Patriots visited the White House last week, and while quarterback Tom Brady wasn’t in attendance (attending to personal matters, he said), there were plenty of players who had a lot of fun.
One of them was Rob Gronkowski. The 6-foot-6, 265-pound tight end is known for his off-the-field antics, and he interrupted White House press secretary Sean Spicer during a press briefing while the Super Bowl champs were taking a tour.
“Hey Sean, you need some help?” Gronkowski asked.
“I think I’ve got this, but thank you,” Spicer replied, smiling. “All right, that was cool.”
Clippers fan trucks small child, Jazz Bear retaliates
Love them or hate them, halftime and timeout challenges are sticking around NBA arenas for a while.
One Clippers fan took his challenge a bit too seriously.
The fan in question was racing a small Jazz fan in a pair of blow-up balls, and with the competitive juices flowing, he turned and put the young fan on his behind.
Adult @LAClippers fan is a dick to kid in fun quarter-time race.@utahjazz mascot DEE-STROYS him.
— Jon Healy (@JonHealy) April 24, 2017
Kid wins race.#NBAPlayoffs2017pic.twitter.com/aDlYQwdISR
Jazz Bear didn't like that — so the lovable Utah mascot sprinted and took down the offender himself.
.@LAClippers@utahjazz Oh wow. That fan looked in bad nick. Even the Jazz announcer asked "Is he OK?" pic.twitter.com/vx6srX5En9
— Jon Healy (@JonHealy) April 24, 2017
The Jazz fan won, by the way.
Russell Westbrook goes off … on a reporter
After Oklahoma City’s 113-109 loss to Houston to take a 3-1 series deficit in the first round of the NBA playoffs, all-everything guard Russell Westbrook was asked to address the media, along with center Steven Adams, to try to explain the team’s 14-point meltdown during the third quarter.
And Westbrook wasn’t having one of the reporter’s questions.
“I don’t want nobody to try to split us up; we all one team. When I go to the bench … we in this together,” Westbrook said. “Don’t try to split us up, make us go against each other.
“I don’t want to hear that. We in this together. We play as a team. That’s all that matters. That’s it.”
Watch the entire heated exchange in the video below, including Westbrook’s inability to allow the reporter to ask any more questions.
Russell Westbrook goes off on reporter who asks about team's play while he's on the bench pic.twitter.com/oikTf0GxCj
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) April 23, 2017
