USA Basketball Coach Gregg Popovich Belittles Reporter After Latest Olympic Loss: ‘Be Quiet Now While I Talk’
After losing their opening Olympic exhibition to Nigeria, USA Basketball followed the disappointing performance by dropping their second game to Australia. It will either serve as a wake-up call or a sign that Team USA might not be medal-worthy.
Following their second straight loss, Damian Lillard was asked by a reporter about watching past USA Olympic teams dominate their way to a medal, while the current roster is struggling against Nigeria and Australia.
Head coach Gregg Popovich interjected, to challenge the narrative about Team USA regularly dominating other countries in the Olympics.
“You asked the same sort of question last time, where you assume things that aren’t true when you just mentioned blowing these teams out, that’s never happened,” Popovich said. The reporter tried to jump back in with statistics, but Popovich quickly shut him down. “Are you gonna let me finish my statement or not? So you’ll be quiet now while I talk. And then I’ll listen to you.”
“When you make statements about in the past, just blowing out these other teams, No. 1 you give no respect to the other teams,” Popovich continued. “I talked to you last time about the same thing. We’ve had very close games against four or five countries in all these tournaments. So, the good teams do not get blown out. There are certain games it might happen in one of the tournaments, world championships, and Olympics when somebody gets blown out, but in general, nobody is blowing anybody out for the good teams. So, when you make a statement like that it’s like you assume that’s what’s going on.”
Team USA is 0-2 in their first two Olympic exhibitions this year. In 2016, they won their first game by 37 points and the second by 49. Team USA lost to Nigeria this year, despite being an overwhelming favorite, but in 2016, they beat the Nigerian national team by 44 points.
When the United States sends a roster featuring NBA All-Stars to the Olympics, it comes with high hopes. Through two games this year, Popovich has failed to coach Team USA to those expectations.
Watch above via, ESPN
