Gregg Popovich, the no-nonsense San Antonio Spurs coach, now has a rap video in his honor, and he wasn’t shy about showing it to his team.
Israeli rapper “X Beautiful” is a huge fan of Popovich and made this music video to prove it.
In a league where coaches are viewed as disposable parts by players and management alike, “Pop” is regarded with a high degree of respect throughout professional basketball. A graduate of the Air Force Academy, he is the longest tenured coach in the NBA and has won four championships as head coach of the Spurs. Popovich, who manages his team the way he wants to, recently was fined $250,000 for resting his key players (in fact sending them home) on the final game of of a six-game roadtrip.
The Pop tribute rap video by X Beautiful actually came up when Spurs guard Stephen Jackson and the coach were bantering during a team meeting, according to the Spurs Nation section of the San Antonio Express News :
“Not only has Popovich seen [the video], he used it to prank the Spurs before their last preseason game. We’ll let Captain Jack explain:
” ‘He was showing some film of me messing up, getting on me real hard. I was like, ‘You know what Pop, I don’t even want to play basketball. I’d rather do this. Kick it!’ And they played two of my videos. And Pop was like, ‘You know what? Don’t worry about it Jack. I got my own video.’ It was pretty cool.’ “
The older gentlemen in the video who repeats “he wants a nasty game” is reportedly prominent Israeli TV producer and NBA fan Arik Henig.
Watch the X Beautiful Popovich music video:
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