The San Antonio Spurs had just lost Game 3 of the Western Conference finals in demoralizing fashion. Oklahoma City had beaten them by 15 points on the Spurs’ home court to take a 2-1 series lead, and San Antonio decided to have a closed-door meeting immediately following the game.
This wasn’t just any team meeting, though. In the locker room were front office personnel, trainers, various staff — people who wouldn’t normally be in there postgame.
“We closed the doors. ‘We don’t let anybody know what’s going on in here,’ Spurs guard De’Aaron Fox later recalled on a Peacock broadcast, evidently breaking the meeting’s one rule. Moments later, the door opened. “We see Pop come in, and it’s like, ‘ahhhh,’ ” Fox said, raising his voice in excitement.
Gregg Popovich, the former Spurs head coach, wanted to convey a message to the team. “That’s BS. That’s not how we play basketball,” he said, according to Fox.