NEW YORK _ The San Antonio Spurs arrived at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night with an eight-game losing streak, the longest in Gregg Popovich's long run as head coach. But the often combative coach seemed lighthearted and even optimistic _ as long as the topic stayed on his team and not on the nation's impeachment hearings.
When it was relayed to him that some of his players said he has been positive with them despite the uncharacteristic struggles, he shrugged.
"Well, sure. They're my players," Popovich said. "Is that a shock that a coach would be positive with his players? I get mean once in a while. Whether you're winning or losing, the reasons remain the same why you win and why you lose. So you just keep working every day to try to get everything going in the same direction. So in our case, as I said last night, some people have said we've lost seven or eight in a row. That's not true. It's a hoax. It's just not true. And I'm going with it. So I'm staying positive."
