There were suggestions on Twitter and elsewhere that the Lynx would receive an increased level of support on Friday night, in reaction to a comment from a local union leader that the team's crowds at Target Center were "pathetic."
The union man was Lt. Bob Kroll, president of the Minneapolis Police Officers Federation. Kroll said this in his comments supporting the decision by four cops to walk away from off-duty jobs as security for last Saturday's Lynx game at Target Center.
The controversy did not surface in the media until midweek. For many, Kroll became the bad guy, and Lynx players became heroines for having worn T-shirts in support of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, two black men killed by police in the disparate locations of Falcon Heights, Minn., and Baton Rouge, La.
The Lynx also were praised for including the shield of the Dallas Police Department on the T-shirts, as if showing anguish for the five Dallas cops killed in an ambush was an example of great awareness.
The guess here is the T-shirts would not have caused a walkout from the off-duty cops, if it did not include the phrase "Black Lives Matter."
The loosely formed national groups that go by that name can offer all the disclaimers that they choose, but for a good share of police officers it has to be taken as an accusation that they have no regard for the lives of black people.
And you don't want cops — on or off duty — to take that as a serious insult worn on a T-shirt before a professional sports event that draws thousands of people?
Kroll's offhand comment on the Lynx as a pathetic draw was careless, yes, but there's also this: