Like nearly every parent and American, the tragedy in Newtown, Conn. Friday hit close to home for Pistons coach Lawrence Frank.

Frank, who is the father of two young girls, was sickened by the events.

“It’s sad the evil we have,” Frank said. “I can’t even imagine what the people are going through in Newtown. I don’t know how you put it into words, that type of event.

“Every parent sends their kid to school to learn,” Frank added. ‘You assume that they’re safe. To me, the fact that some sick, sick, sick, sick human being can do what he did, how do you explain that? It’s inexplicable."

The Pistons happened to be in Brooklyn Friday, near where Frank’s wife and kids live in New Jersey.
Frank had a chance to spend time with his family, who accompanied him back to Detroit. A trip that was planned long in advance.

Frank said he talked to his daughters about the tragedy and wanted to be very honest and truthful with them.

“One of the things you get from that incident is how so many people were helping each other,” Frank said. “Whether it was students helping students, teachers helping students, the police helping teachers, the police helping students, whatever. To deal with a tragic, tragic, tragic situation. How does the country, how does the school systems, react from this point forward? What are the gun laws?

“There’s no justification, no rationalization. To me, you just explain to them that, there are some people who are just sick, sick people. You can’t explain what they do. I don’t know, it’s horrific.”

Despite the tragedy, Frank and the Pistons had to play a game Friday night against the Nets.

Frank said he found out about the incident after shootaround and while it put basketball in perspective, he also had a job to do.

“How can you not break down and cry about what those people are experiencing?” Frank said. “We’re all human. It’s our job obviously, but you also have to put it in proper perspective. Relative to what happened there, it’s truly, truly insignificant. Yet at the same time it’s like anything else that happens to you in your life off the court, whether it’s health, death, the sanctuary for many is that court.

“Once you’re in your preparation, you have to be just focused on the task at hand. Once that event is over, you can go back and your mind can drift towards whatever the situation may be.”