Gregg Popovich Comments on NBA's Final 2-Minute Reports
San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich revealed to Michael C. Wright of ESPN on Thursday that he isn't a big fan of the NBA's Last Two Minute Reports the league unveils after each game.
The reports detail the calls the officials get wrong, get correct or miss altogether in the final two minutes of each game. And Popovich thinks it's an odd practice:
"For the people involved, it's very frustrating because there's nothing you can do about it. So it's sort of an odd practice in that sense, but I think they just want to have transparency. So from their perspective it's a good thing so that people know they can admit errors, that's always a good thing, and people won't just guess about what's going on. So from their perspective it's a good thing and that's hard to argue with.
But it is frustrating when things happen like what happened in Game 2 and the last game at the end. But again, officials aren't doing that on purpose. They're going to miss things. It's a tough deal. I'm absolutely frustrated and angry that the calls weren't made. But it happens to everybody along the way. I've been in the business long enough, you end up on both sides of it, for sure. So you let it go so you can play the next game.
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Popovich, unsurprisingly, was measured in his evaluation of the reports, a practice that seems to be more in the best interests of the league and fans but not the teams. Ultimately, those reports probably have a "would've, could've, should've" feel to the players and coaches who are powerless to change the results of a game that turned on a bad call.
It also isn't surprising that Popovich would comment on the reports Thursday. The Spurs have been subjected to some questionable calls in their Western Conference Semifinals series against the Oklahoma City Thunder, which the Spurs trail, 3-2.
In Game 2, the officials missed a whopping five calls on the final possession alone, including Dion Waiters crossing the inbound line and making contact with Manu Ginobili while the Thunder guard was attempting to inbound the ball.
And in Game 5, officials should have called Kawhi Leonard for a foul on Russell Westbrook before Westbrook converted a three-point play later in the sequence, and they made an incorrect call on a foul committed by Danny Green.
Popovich would likely prefer for the officials to get the calls right down the stretch for the remainder of the series.
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