The world we live in

 The Miami Heat knocked the Chicago Bulls out of the playoffs last night, which means Bulls star DeMar DeRozan's kid can rest her vocal chords. She can also go back to at least a semblance of blessed kid-like anonymity, which is just fine with DeMar.

See, because this is the world we live in now, Diar DeRozan's screaming support for Daddy the other night landed her all over social media.

Because this is the world we live in, she -- a nine-year-old girl -- therefore became what passes for an overnight sensation these days, with United Airlines offering to comp her flight down to Miami so she could be at Daddy's next game.

And because this is also the world we live in, on the night she became famous up in Toronto, security escorted her out of the building after the NBA notified the Raptors that there had been online threats directed toward her.

Threats. Against a nine-year-old girl.

I would ask what sort of subhuman creatures would do such a thing, but because this is the world we live in, I don't have to. I know those creatures exist. They live in mom's basement or somewhere similarly subterranean, eating Flamin' Hot Cheetos and threatening children because, really, what else do they have in their lives? 

I mean, it's not like they've ever been on a date with anything that wasn't inflatable.

But you know what?

DeMar DeRozan does not live in the world we live in.

He lives in the world where a dad -- i.e., him -- turned down United's offer to fly Diar to last night's game, because Diar had already missed one school day to go to Toronto, and she wasn't going to miss another to go to Miami.  And besides, she had her own basketball game to play that night.

"She's still a child, you know what I mean?" DeRozan said Friday morning. "I don't let her get caught up in the outside fix of it."

And the online threats?

"It's crazy," he said. "No matter how good something could be, you still got miserable people that just don't have a life, honestly."

Sad but true.