Barstool’s founder crosses the line with disrespectful Popovich comments

If you're familiar with Barstool Sports, you know that they have a history of controversy. It's kind of their thing. Barstool's founder, Dave Portnoy, has a history of making inflammatory remarks about one thing or another. Strong opinions are the bread and butter of sports commentary these days, and Portnoy hasn't been shy about expressing his.

Currently, Dave is in San Antonio to cover the NCAA Final Four, taking place this weekend. It's why he began talking about Coach Popovich in the first place. Though, I wish he hadn't. He had nothing kind to say about the most-tenured coach in the league and gave no grace to a man recovering from a stroke. In fact, he launched into a nearly two-minute tirade blasting the Spurs coach.

*NSFW Language*

"I hate Popovich...He is an absolute pompous ***hole," Portnoy said. "Just coach the team. He thinks he's God. He thinks he's the righteous morality. He always lectures you..."

Popovich deserves more respect than to be attacked in San Antonio

Coach Pop is a treasure in San Antonio. Coming to the city and outright disrespecting him in front of a crowd of Spurs fans is unnecessarily rude. You can tell from the video above that nobody asked Portnoy for his opinion of the 75-year-old five-time champion but he decided to launch into his diatribe all on his own.

During his little outburst, Dave does a thing that confuses San Antonio supporters worldwide, yet its consistency is as reliable as a piece of dessert from The Cheesecake Factory. He makes the point that any coach could have won with Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili.

Now, look; Spurs fans love the legends who have come through those tunnels and put on a Silver and Black jersey, but defending them is our job. Throughout their careers, San Antonio's players were routinely underestimated and undervalued. We're not that far removed from the Big Three era, and fans will remember how the players were discussed no matter how much winning they did.

If I had a nickel for every time I heard someone claim TP wasn't elite or Manu was reckless and inconsistent, I could buy X back from Elon Musk and revert it to Twitter. The arguments for how good our players were changes from debate to debate depending on the argument being made against the Spurs at the time.

Pop is almost universally respected by people who know basketball because what he did is rare. Not only did he win championships, but he did it in different eras, adopting the style of his team to keep pace with whatever direction the league was heading. He's the winningest coach in NBA history for a reason.

By the way, Portnoy probably needs to be lectured at. A few years back, the Barstool founder was accused of sexual misconduct by several women and when he tried to sue Business Insider for defamation, he lost. While he was never convicted and he denies any wrongdoing, it's notable that five women made claims against him.

His company as a whole was under fire not too long ago because of a reportedly toxic culture where misogyny, online harassment, and racism. They were even the subject of an article called "5 Things You Should Know About Barstool Sports if You Care About Being a Good Person." Yikes. Maybe worry about that.