Monty Williams had gone to the Clackamas Town Center, where a shooting took place last week, approximately 10 times with his kids during his time as an assistant with the Portland Trail Blazers.

Williams checked in with LaMarcus Aldridge to make sure that none of the Blazers were at the mall when the shooting occurred.

Williams attempted to put basketball in perspective a few days later following the mass shooting in Connecticut.

“I have always felt like (professional) basketball kind of puts us in a fantasy world a bit,’’ Williams said. “When things like (Clackamas) happen we think it puts life in perspective. But the reality is, we’ve have situations like that happen all over the world. There was situation in Asia not too long ago where a guy took a knife and cut up 20 kids, But we don't hear about that over here. If everything was reported all the time, we probably wouldn’t leave our homes. But the NBA isolates us a little bit, then when things happen, we think perspective, but that’s a natural reality for people in the Sudan, Johannesburg, third world South America. But for us, we live in a world where we read Hoopshype and RealGM everyday, and we don’t pay attention to what’s going on in the world.’’