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Bogut schadenfreude is not welcome here.

Andrew Bogut’s season was ended yesterday. That is nothing to laugh about.

2016 NBA Finals - Game Two Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

I’ve seen some really bad takes in the last 24 hours since former Warrior Andrew Bogut fractured his tibia in the first minute of his debut with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Some were situational humor that I felt bad for laughing at in light of the ultimate severity of his injury, but were generally harmless.

The rest of them ranged from the petty to the political. Neither are a good look.

Saying his injury was karma for choosing Cleveland is gross. It’s not like he was choosing between Golden State and Cleveland - and even if he was, isn’t this the same petty, vitriolic behavior we called out in Oklahoma City fans after Kevin Durant left?

The jokes about his political ideologies causing this are, frankly, disgusting. Bogut is outspoken about a lot of things that may be at odds with what many in the Bay Area believe, and he has shown a slight susceptibility to some of the fake news sites on the internet, but Milo Yiannopoulos he is not.

I would describe myself as a liberal, and I live in a vastly conservative part of California. The very same area that was evacuated due to the Oroville Dam scare a few weeks ago. I remember being scared as we watched the entire area evacuate, but weren’t able to do so ourselves. And I remember seeing conservatives in other parts of the country making jokes about all of the water being caused by “liberal tears.” Others saying we deserved it for voting for democratic representatives. (We are one of the reddest parts of California, but that’s irrelevant.)

Removing the humanity from a frightening situation to make a political joke is part of a serious problem in the division of this country right now. Luckily, we ended up being just fine. Bogut may not fare so well.

He’s 32 years old, coming off of multiple injuries and now facing not only the end of his season, but potentially the end of his career. That’s nothing to laugh at. Bogut was a key part of this team’s rise to where it is at now. And beyond that, he is a person. A person we may disagree with. A person we may be annoyed with for choosing to play for our direct rivals. But a person nonetheless.

There’s a distinction between team and athlete. It’s fun to laugh at your rival team when they lose. They deserve it! But athletes are people and injury to an athlete should never be a source for that same type of glee and schadenfreude.

Ultimately, don’t be that fan. And definitely don’t be that fan here. We aren’t here for it.

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