The NBA’s grizzled media stalwarts are mostly impervious to the insipid line of inquiry customarily on display in postgame pressers. The result is a sort of dull consistency to the exchange – pointless questions followed by carefully-rehearsed responses that are nearly indistinguishable around the league, which is why it’s so refreshing when someone breaks the status quo, goes off script and dares to say something candid or forthright.
Coaches, by nature, don’t tolerate a lot of nonsense. It’s part of the job description. After all, they spend the bulk of their time cultivating a standard of professionalism among their players that will theoretically translate into game-time success. So it must take a near-Herculean effort on their part not to unleash a maelstrom of profanities in response to the mind-numbing questions they are subjected to on a daily basis. Nobody knows that better than San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich.
And nobody is better than Coach Pop at calling attention to the media’s absurdity. He doesn’t suffer fools lightly, and his scathing responses, deadpan delivery, and palpable contempt help break the spell cast over any media event and consequently demand a higher level of discourse. Ask him what his strategy is for any given game, and he’s liable to respond with “score more points than the other team.” Ask him why they just lost a game, and he’ll most likely say “because the other team scored more points.”
He could teach a master-level course on dealing with the media, and what follows is a collection of his best moments. Enjoy.
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13. Coach Pop Plays a Joke on Shaq
After employing the Hack-a-Shaq routine in the playoffs the previous season, much to the Big Diesel’s dismay, Coach Pop starts off the ’08-’09 season on the right foot.
12. Coach Pop Patiently Awaits a Reporter’s Baffling Line of Inquiry
Patience is not typically one of his virtues, but Coach Pop exercises tremendous restraint on this one. (Starts at 32-second mark.)
11. The Wheel Turns…However Slowly
No stranger to irony, Coach Pop reaps what he has sown as the Thunder employ his patented Hack-a-Shaq defense on Tiago Splitter during the 2011 Western Conference Finals.
10. “It’s a Fair Question”
Pop likes to keep his cards close to his chest. You’re free to ask him whatever you want, but that doesn’t mean he has to answer.
9. Coach Pop Roasts the Media
If there’s one thing Coach Pop won’t stand for, it’s toothless, empty-headed questions like this. He expects a little more effort from everyone around him, and if he has to do that at the expense of someone’s dignity, so be it.
8. No Second Question?
Coach Pop has humiliated so many sideline reporters that they are almost too afraid to ask him anything. Aldridge has a history with Pop, as you’ll soon find out, so he wisely keeps his question brief on this one.
7. “No more questions, Chuck.”
Even Charles Barkley is intimated by Coach Pop.
6. A Young Reporter’s Baptism by Fire
In which Coach Pop proves that he’s a good-natured, warm-hearted individual.
5. Coach Pop on Urgency
Sometimes, the media needs to be reminded that the game of basketball isn’t always as complicated as it seems. Enter Coach Pop:
4. “I Want Some Nasty.”
“I want some nasty” is quite possibly only the third-funniest thing he says during this timeout. He struggles to find the right word to describe their play, finally settling on “unconfident,” then has a Freudian slip while imploring them to “penetrate hard.”
3. The Four-Word Interview + “Turnovers”
Always the master of brevity, Coach Pop likes to keep his answers short and to the point.
Doris Burke said it best: “Verbosity, he will never be accused of.” Perhaps he thought he was a little too long-winded in his four-word interview. Here, he offers a much more succinct, one-word response.
2. “Nobody’s Happy.”
A notoriously-taciturn man to begin with, Coach Pop stares holes right through an otherwise widely-respected veteran reporter like David Aldridge (who admittedly should have known better) after he trots out a magnificently hollow word during his luckless attempt to ascertain the coach’s general temperament toward the game-in-progress.
1. Coach Pop vs. Craig Sager
There are too many great moments between these two to pick just one, so just sit back and enjoy this “Best of Coach Pop” mix featuring several cameos by the always fiercely-attired sideline reporter.
What do you think?
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