Evanson: Bad moments don't make bad people, and Cameron Brink proved that last weekend

Cameron Brink had a bad moment this past week.

The Stanford star and former Southridge and Mountainside High School standout fouled out of her second round NCAA Tournament game with Iowa State this past Sunday, with her team trailing 64-63 and just over two minutes remaining. The Cardinal went on to win the game and advance to this week’s regional being played here in Portland, but Brink’s performance and ultimately her team’s win took a bit of a backseat in the wake of the game with the Cyclones due to the star post’s apparent comment to a game referee upon her departure.

A now viral video shows Brink leaving the court following her fifth foul, and as she walks past the referee rather clearly looks at the official and appears to tell him to…well…in a less parental way, “eff off.”

Brink has — at least as of Tuesday morning — yet to address the comment, but while what was said in the moment on the court seems fairly clear, so does the player’s track record off of it.

I’m not familiar with any off-the-court issues with Brink during her tenure at Stanford, nor am I aware of anything similar while she attended and played basketball at either of her Beaverton high schools. So, while a rough look for sure, even good people have bad moments from time to time, and I have no reason to think that the Stanford star’s recent slip-up was anything more than just that.

But while people are now rather predictably using the incident as a vehicle to get their mostly unrelated point or agenda to the masses, I’m going to do the same in an effort not to so much defend Brink, but you, I, and the rest of the imperfect human race from people who love nothing more than to scream loudly from the front row of their ivory tower — when it’s convenient.

I could rather easily rip Brink for her behavior, after all, what she appeared to have done and said falls firmly into the categories of childish, disrespectful and reckless, for had she been given a technical foul for her outburst it could’ve resulted not only in her team’s departure from the tournament, but also a less-than-triumphant end to her otherwise highly decorated collegiate career.

It’s also quite obviously poor sportsmanship, and while the idea of such is at best an endangered species, I’m more than on the record regarding my desire to keep even the slightest semblance of the term alive despite a seemingly generational fight against it.

Yet, while I can be as lazy as the next guy from time to time, I won’t be in this case because I have a relatively good memory, and a mirror that if I look squarely into will remind me that I too have made mistakes in the heat of competition. And lecturing someone for behavior at least akin to something I may have been guilty of in the past would be as hypocritical as the people I earlier chastised for weaponizing it with their own interests in mind.

Brink should take some heat. You can’t do what she appears to have done and peacefully tip-toe through the tulips on your way to your next NIL or WNBA deal. But at the same time, she shouldn’t be defined by a couple of seconds I’d bet that in hindsight she’d like to have back.

Take a minute and think of something you’ve done or said while either playing or attending a game. Now, imagine doing or saying that same thing in front of a camera or on a microphone for people worldwide to see. I cringe — and to some extent chuckle — at the thought. But while somewhat painfully reminiscing doesn’t justify what I or in this case Brink said or did, it does to an extent explain what we all are shamefully capable of when our emotions get the best of us, and hopefully allows us all to relate to, while not excusing her or our actions.

Cameron Brink is a pretty darn good basketball player. She’s also, according to people I know or have heard from over the years, a pretty darn good person. So, why would I turn my back on the bulk of what I know about the young woman, in exchange for the very limited sample size I saw from the young basketball player I saw this past Sunday?

That feels like an emotional mishap. Sound familiar?