The day after a Zaza Pachulia closeout foul hurt Kawhi Leonard, Gregg Popovich went on a tirade about Pachulia’s dirty play. The lively press conference was sparked by a little bit of sports hate.
But, for fans, sports hate often means real hate. The lines can be blurred. And in the days after Popovich’s directed rant stoked the flames, Pachulia received so much online backlash that he closed down his Instagram account and even had security guards deployed to the entrance of his son’s school, he told USA Today on Sunday.
“I don’t blame everything on Pop, but what he said had a lot of influence (and) you had a lot of people where, unfortunately, you can’t control what everybody’s intelligence is,” Pachulia told USA Today’s Sam Amick.