Left-wing NBA coach grabs microphone and hijacks game to scold fans, snaps at reporter

It’s difficult to miss the leftist leanings of the NBA, be it the eagerness to curry favor from Communist China or the embrace of the Marxist-aligned Black Lives Matter movement, but few in the league are as extreme in their views as San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich — or at least as vocal.

The NBA is a player-controlled league, and Pops, as Popovich is known, was clear about where his loyalties lie when the hometown San Antonia crowd booed Los Angeles Clippers player Kawhi Leonard, who used to play for the Spurs before informing the team that he wanted to be traded. Not only did Pops lecture the crowd about the booing, sounding much like Barack Obama with his choice of rhetoric, but he snapped at a reporter after the game over the incident.

“Excuse me for a second. Can we stop all the booing and let these guys play?” Popovich said from the scorers’ table, upset with Leonard being booed every time he touched the ball. “It’s got no class, it’s not who we are. Knock off the booing!”

That’s quite ballsy given that the average cost for a Spurs ticket at Frost Bank Center is $208, according to SeatGeek. Then again, that’s right up the alley for a liberal like Popovich.

“Well, I don’t believe I’ve ever seen that,” an affirmative action female announcer said.

“I’ve seen a number of college coaches motion to their crowds, particularly the student crowds if they’re cursing or whatever, or tell them and control them,” her colleague said. “But I don’t think I’ve seen that.”

Give the San Antonio crowd credit though, they seemed to boo even louder after the announcement when Leonard touched the ball.

When a reporter asked Pops about the incident at a post-game press conference, he stood by his words, “Anybody that knows anything about sports. you don’t poke the bear.”

Which means hometown fans shouldn’t taunt the opposition? It’s a nonsensical answer and when the reporter pressed, the head coach replied, “I just told you why I did it,”

After a moment of awkward silence, the reporter took another stab at it, “Can you clarify that, though?”

“I spoke English,” Popovich said. “I just told you! Anybody that knows anything about sports knows you don’t poke the bear. That’s my answer!”

Here’s a quick sampling of responses to the story, as seen on X:

Tom Tillison

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