Spurs head coach Greg Popovich has already made one appearance in this space with a reasoned take on kneejerk xenophobia and here’s another. Prior to losing Manu Giobili to a broken hand and watching Ricky Rubio provide more highlight reel fodder (above) in a defeat to Minnesota, Popovich was asked by the Star-Tribune’s Kent Youngblood “how difficult it would be” for the T-Wolves’ Spanish rookie “to adjust to American culture?”
“These guys, they travel around the world,” Popovich said of international players such as Rubio and Ginobili. “They’re more cultured than we are. Everyone acts like Americans are the ones … we have sort of an arrogance about us. Like we’re the cultured ones? Are you serious?
”Have you watched TV lately? Have you seen what Americans do? How many languages do you speak? And you wonder how they’re going to adjust to our culture? I hope they avoid it and keep their own!”