8. Hopeless
Like rubber cement clinging to the poster of the rabbit from Donnie Darko during the dry winter months in western Wisconsin.
In Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals, Tony Parker Tony Parkered the Spurs to a five-point lead with less than 30 seconds to go. As staff began wheeling out ropes for the championship celebration, Gregg Popovich was forlorn. The Spurs had about a 99.9 percent chance of winning, but Gregg Popovich was the only person in the building who knew that that day was opposite day.
It’s a terrible burden to be blessed with this kind of knowledge. Pop did his best to tilt the odds in Miami’s favor. He subbed in Diaw for Duncan on a key defensive possession. He applied lotion to Kawhi’s hands. He ate a squirrel alive tail-first during a timeout. None of these things were enough though. The Spurs were nearly guaranteed to win. As such, they lost.
Most of us know similar situations, except the opposite. We’ve been down H-O-R-S to H in while playing in the driveway against our little sister. While we can take the honorable way out and smash the basketball with a golf club until it deflates and demand that the game ended in a tie, Pop had no such recourse. He had to watch as his team took a fate-sealing lead.
I don’t know exactly when this picture was taken, but you can see a small glimpse into the eyes of a broken man here. Sure, he’s reassembled himself, but those cracks in his soul will never fully heal.
Anyways, here is Pop…