Pressure on Popovich Ramps Up After Viral Reddit Post, Jazz Game Big

Stacey King’s Victor-not-getting-the-ball commentary went viral on Reddit and turned up the heat on Pop’s seat from 5 to 7.5.

“I don’t know how you miss a 7'4 guy,” King said. “It’s almost like his team’s reluctant to throw it to him.

It’s not almost, Stacey. It is.

The Reddit thread now stands at 4,500 upvotes and 690 comments.

The reason it became popular is because King’s commentary directly hit on a season long elephant in the room: the Spurs are ignoring Victor, they’re not passing him the ball, and he’s not a focal part of the offense.

We saw healthy sprinkles of this even in the first 5 games when the Spurs were 3–2, but things have been even worse in the 23 games since.

The Spurs quietly have a lot of Wemby Watchers and we’ve noticed some very selfish teammates (like Jeremy Sochan and Keldon Johnson) and even more extremely poor coaching.

And we’re not the only ones who have noticed. Pop and co. have been casually called out on national TV multiple times.

Gregg Anthony and Channing Frye noticed on NBATV.

Richard Jefferson and JJ Reddick on ESPN.

Hubie Brown on another ESPN game.

And an interesting note on King’s commentary is if you had switched the dial from the Bulls broadcast to the Spurs broadcast, you would have heard Sean Elliott going somewhat volcanic.

Which all leads us to tonight’s game, the post Christmas showdown in San Antonio against the Jazz.

The good news is Victor’s supposed to play.

If you’ll recall, the Spurs played the Mavs before Christmas (on December 23) and during warm-ups, Victor weirdly stepped on a ball boy’s foot and, of course, Pop ruled him out.

I have zero doubt in my mind Pop ruled him out because of his obsessive compulsive disorder with shaving Victor’s games and minutes.

But there was a Pop friendly effect of Victor not playing: it lessened some of the immediate pressure on Popovich.

The pressure re-intensifies tonight.

Many eyes will be on the Jazz game.

If Victor gets a few plays called for him and teammates grudgingly or begrudgingly mostly get him the ball when he’s wide open, Pop’s hot seat will temper back down a point and a half to 6.

But, holy hell, if the Spurs still don’t pass to Victor and/or Victor gets another severe minute restriction and/or the Spurs suffer another major blowout loss, I won’t be surprised if we hear boos reign down in the Frost Bank Center.