Gregg Popovich at an April 14 press conference.
NBCBy Andrew Bucholtz on

The San Antonio Spurs lost 113-92 to the Golden State Warriors in Game 1 of their first-round NBA playoff series Saturday, a blowout so lopsided that one of the most notable things that happened may have been forensic analysis of who on the NBA on ABC broadcasting team coughed. But at least Spurs’ head coach Gregg Popovich, as usual, won the press conference.

Popovich started things off with a rant about the Gatorade bottle on the dais, and a pretty believably in-character one, before noting that he was just kidding, saying “Just because you got your ass kicked doesn’t mean you have to have no sense of humor,” then saying “Okay, what do you want, I’m so tired of this?” and answering an opening “What went wrong for you guys tonight?” question with “What went wrong for us? They played better than we did!”

Here’s a transcription of the Gatorade faux-rant, via For The Win’s Michelle R. Martinelli:

“(This is) supposed to be here? What if I don’t like this? There’s too much sugar and all that kind of stuff. I don’t want to promote that. …

I’m just teasing, jeez. Have a sense of humor, will ya? Just because you got your ass kicked tonight doesn’t mean you have to have no sense of humor. OK, what do you want?”

And the “What went wrong for us?! They played better than we did!” is great, as is his answer to the next question about starting Danny Green and having him match up against Kevin Durant.

“Did you watch the game?” “Yes.” “Well, what did you think?”

Popovich’s team may not be doing too well so far against the Warriors, but boy, his press conferences are still the stuff of legend. Pour one out for the journalists who have to try and ask him questions, though. And hilariously, he later walked away after mocking reporters for not asking more questions:

If this series continues the way it’s going, Popovich may reach salt levels previously only seen in the Dead Sea by the end.

[For The Win]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.

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