Gregg Popovich Ought to Stop Whining And Get Over Himself

Oh ho man! Did you see the Gregg Popovich video? The one where he’s upset because he didn’t get something he wanted so he took it out on a room full of people who had nothing to do with it?

Are you having a hard time remembering which video I’m talking about, because this describes thousands of moments in Popovich’s career? Moments where he gives idiotic answers to reasonable questions, belittles people for doing nothing but their jobs, acts like having the job of basketball coach makes him a superior human being, and generally behaves like an arrogant, self-righteous, self-obsessed old man with the emotional dexterity of a toddler?

Oh, guess what, Pop doesn’t like doing press conferences. Wow, what a surprise. He must be really special and interesting and competitive if he doesn’t like doing press conferences. Real Men don’t answer questions. By the way, you know who else hates press conferences?

The press.

Press conferences are the worst. The press manages to show up to these dreadful things, night after night, year after year, without whining about it the whole time and trying to make their stupid emotions somebody else’s problem, because that’s how professionals act in a professional setting, and it’s how most basketball coaches act.

Yet it seems too much to ask that a 69-year-old man who makes $6 million a year make it through a three minutes of standard postgame press fare  without filling his diaper.

Are we supposed to be impressed or something?

Popovich has made this into his little act. It plays well on Twitter and SportsCenter, and it is often hilarious. It’s also arrogant, whiny, gratuitously rude, and an embarrassing way for somebody in Popovich’s esteemed position to behave, whether or not he has the self-awareness to be embarrassed by it.

You lost a game, Pop. It won’t be the last. Get over yourself.