The NBA has been plagued with the spread of the coronavirus – and Gregg Popovich's San Antonio Spurs have been no exception.

The Spurs have been forced to try out some relative unknowns this season and the Spurs head coach just can't keep up anymore, apparently.

Via Tom Moore:

“I don’t even know half their names,” Gregg Popovich joked after being asked about the Spurs starting lineup against the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday night.

Coach Pop was obviously speaking tongue-in-cheek. But it's no lie that the casual NBA fan probably won't have much name recall for most players who suited up against the Sixers.

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Outside of Dejounte Murray, and to a lesser extent Jakob Poeltl and Bryn Forbes, the Spurs rotation on Friday consisted of guys like Joshua Primo, Drew Eubanks, Devonta Cacok, Jaylen Morris, Jock Landale, and Joe Wieskamp.

Would an avid Spurs fan know these guys? Probably. But would anyone else? Not likely. But that's just been the kind of year the NBA has faced in this new normal forced upon the league by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Just like everybody else. Sometimes you got all your guys, sometimes you are devastated. And everything in between. That’s the kind of year we are living in. Tonight it will be our turn.”

The San Antonio Spurs' band of plucky misfits weren't enough to overcome the 31 points from Joel Embiid as they fell to the Sixers, 119-100. But hopefully some of them made a couple of new fans as they got some unexpected shine on the evening.

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