The Spurs and Warriors opened their long awaited Western Conference Finals series on Sunday afternoon in Oakland, but for San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich, he can’t help but be a bit distracted by everything going on in the world.
Prior to Game 1, Popovich was asked about those distractions and was open with his thoughts on Donald Trump — as he has been on multiple occasions in the past — and his problems with how Trump handles the presidency.
Gregg Popovich lighting into Donald Trump about how he conducts himself: "It's a game show" pic.twitter.com/kLyUYtg3Xi
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) May 14, 2017
“Absolutely,” Popovich said. “It’s interesting you would ask that, because usually things happen in the world and you go to work and you have your family and your friends and you do what you do. To this day, I feel like there’s a cloud, a pall over the whole country in a paranoid, surreal sort of way. It’s got nothing to do with the Democrats losing the election; it has to do with the way one individual conducts himself and that’s embarrassing. It’s dangerous to our institutions and what we all stand for and what we expect the country to be. For this individual, he’s in a game show. Everything that happens begins and ends with him, not our people or our country. Every time he talks about those things, it’s a ruse. It’s just disingenuous, cynical.”
Popovich never shies away from discussing politics or social issues, but it’s interesting to hear him speak about this just prior to the first game of the Western Conference Finals. However, it speaks to the seriousness with which Pop takes things happening outside of the basketball world. Most coaches would, understandably, pass on answering that kind of question, likely opting for an answer about just trying to focus on the task at hand, but Pop chose to take time prior to the game to speak on issues that he feels are important to talk about and that was his platform to do so.
