Gregg Popovich Confirms Spy Status

Gotta love Pop: “In a Twitter post Tuesday afternoon, Nash joked that Popovich’s success as a head coach was derived from his time as ‘an American spy in Russia.’ ‘He’s absolutely correct,’ Popovich said. ‘I spent all my military time in Russian basketball courts and different cities collecting as many out-of-bounds plays as I possibly could. Now I finally get a chance to employ them.’ Hack-me-not: In the 2008 playoffs, Popovich made news by purposely fouling then-Suns center Shaquille O’Neal in order to put the poor-shooting big man on the foul line. Asked if he would continue the strategy against O’Neal’s replacement, the sharpshooting Channing Frye, Popovich said no. ‘We’d only do that with Shaq, because he expects it, and I think he’d feel badly if we didn’t keep doing that with him,’ Popovich said, adding, ‘I can’t wait until we get to Cleveland.”’