San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich was tossed in the third quarter of their 121-116 loss against the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday night.
Following Pop's ejection, confusion made the rounds of social media on whether Spurs assistant Becky Hammon officially became the first woman to coach a male team in the four major sports.
However, according to Jack Meloney of CBS Sports, San Antonio reportedly relied on Hammon, Spurs legend Tim Duncan, and Will Hardy to take over the coaching duties for the rest of the evening. Popovich later confirmed that Duncan acted as the head coach in his absence.
Nevertheless, the Spurs still used a team-approach with their legendary mentor taking the early night off. Hammon was reportedly in charge of the coach's huddle during timeouts, while Duncan was responsible for talking to the guys themselves and drawing up plays.
Pop received two technical fouls in the third quarter after he stormed the court in disagreement with the referee's phantom foul call on a Damian Lillard three. Spurs guard DeMar Derozan, likewise, explicitly complained about the officiating following the loss.
The Spurs clawed their way back from as much as 23 points down in the second quarter and finally overtook the Blazers in the third quarter to take a six-point lead heading into the final period. San Antonio looked well on their way to notching their 6th win of the season with a 15 point lead with over eight minutes remaining.
However, Portland staged a massive comeback in the fourth, including an 11-0 run to close the gap down the stretch. The Blazers eventually made the game winning plays and eventually escaped with the road victory.
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