The San Antonio Spurs may have completely flipped their playoff series against the Oklahoma City Thunder after a completely boss move from franchise legend Gregg Popovich.
Although Popovich stepped away from coaching duties this season due to health reasons, he remained heavily involved around the team throughout the year, attending practices, talking with players and continuing to mentor the younger group from behind the scenes.
But after San Antonio’s ugly Game 3 loss, Popovich finally decided he had seen enough.
The Hall of Fame coach stormed into the locker room after the defeat and delivered a message that immediately changed the energy inside the building, according to Spurs guard De’Aaron Fox.
“Pop’s been around throughout the course of the season, but that was the first time he walked into the locker room,” Fox told NBC’s Showtime crew. “And it was like, ‘Nah, that BS. That’s not how we play basketball.’ And obviously he had some choice words for us. That was the first time all season he came into the locker room right after the game and told us how he felt — and everybody felt that. Mitch (Johnson, Spurs coach), B-Wright (Brian Wright, Spurs GM) was in there, all the players down to the staff. And that was the first time I seen that. Everybody was in there, trainers, everybody’s in there. We close the doors, we don’t let anybody know what’s going on in 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 performance from Victor Wembanyama and several major defensive adjustments that slowed down Oklahoma City’s offense. Suddenly, a series that looked like it was slipping away is now tied 2-2 heading back to OKC.
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