While Charles Barkley continues his hilarious attack on Donald Trump with playful jabs and prop comedy, San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich prefers the calm, cool, and cerebral method of mocking the President. Now that Kellyanne Conway has gifted us with the ridiculous phrase “Alternative Facts,” in response to Sean Spicer’s unique take on reality, even sports figures are getting in on the fun. The Tennessee Volunteers added an alternative facts section to their game notes, NBA TV offered some “alternative stats” to ease the pain of the Lakers’ historic loss to Dallas, and Warriors coach Steve Kerr issued some alternative facts for his playing career.
Popovich, already a very vocal opponent of President Trump, gave reporters an alternative fact regarding the health of Spurs star Kawhi Leonard, who missed Monday’s drubbing of the Spurs with a sore hand.
Delivering the news that star forward Kawhi Leonard would not play, Popovich said it was because he had “an injury that’s really not an injury.” When a reporter repeated that phrase and wondered what it meant, Popovich smiled and said, “It’s a figurative statement. It sounds like some of the things that are going on politically in the world.”
“I apologize,” Popovich said. “I just gave an alternative fact. I shouldn’t have done that. But it wasn’t a lie. Don’t try to pin that on me.” (Via Newsday)
I’m currently workshopping a conspiracy theory that Andre Braugher’s Captain Holt is based on Pop. Each new quote is only more evidence.
Joking aside, the man who LeBron James calls the greatest coach in NBA history is relentless in his open messages to Trump. On Saturday night, in a pre-game interview with reporters, the coach even offered the Tweeter-in-Chief some advice.
“I want to be totally vanilla, whether someone says something great or something bad [about me],” Popovich said before the Spurs and Cleveland Cavaliers met Saturday night. “You can’t let that affect you. We have somebody in office right now who should take that lesson.” (Via ESPN)
Upon Trump’s election, Popovich said that he was sick to his stomach, and his criticism has continued, almost daily, as he believes the President is already failing in his efforts to unite. Look no further than the women’s marches, which Popovich, like James, openly supports.
“The march today was great,” Popovich said. “That message is important, and it could have been a whole lot of groups marching. And somebody said on TV, ‘What’s their message?’ Well, their message is obvious. That our president comes in with the lowest [approval] rating of anybody who ever came into the office. And there’s a majority of people out there, since Hillary [Clinton] won the popular vote, that don’t buy his act. And I just wish that he was more — had the ability to be more — mature enough to do something that really is inclusive rather than just talking and saying, ‘I’m going to include everybody.’
“He could talk to the groups that he disrespected and maligned during the primary and really make somebody believe it. But so far, we’ve got [to] a point where you really can’t believe anything that comes out of his mouth. You really can’t.” (Via ESPN)
Says the guy who just fibbed about Leonard’s hand injury.
