The San Antonio Spurs may have completely changed their playoff series against the Oklahoma City Thunder after the manager was completely removed from franchise legend Gregg Popovich.
Although Popovich has been out of coaching this season due to health issues, he has been a big part of the team throughout the year, attending practices, talking to players and continuing to mentor the young team behind the scenes.
But after a bad Game 3 loss to San Antonio, Popovich finally decided he had seen enough.
The Hall of Fame coach walked into the locker room after the loss and delivered a message that immediately changed the energy inside the building, according to Spurs guard De’Aaron Fox.
“Pop has been around during the season, but this was his first time in the locker room,” Fox told NBC’s Showtime crew. “And it was like, ‘Nah, that’s BS. That’s not how we play basketball.’ And obviously he had some choice words for us. It was the first time all season that he came into the locker room right after the game and told us how he felt – and everyone heard it. Mitch (Johnson, Spurs coach), B-Wright (Brian Wright, Spurs GM) was there, all the players down to the staff. And I was seeing that for the first time. Everyone was in there, the coaches, everyone was in there. We close the doors, we don’t let anyone know what’s going on there. We open that door, we see Pop come in, and it’s like, ‘Awwww.’”
Whatever Popovich said behind closed doors clearly worked.
The Spurs responded with a completely different intensity in Game 4, fueled by another monster game from Victor Wembanyama and several defensive adjustments that slowed Oklahoma City’s offense. Meanwhile, the series that looked like it was slipping away is now tied 2-2 going back to OKC.
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