On Tuesday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott formally announced that the state would be lifting its mask mandate in addition to opening the state back up to “100 percent” in the coming days. Never afraid to speak his mind, San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich was quick to criticize Governor Abbott for making such a decision as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic rages forward.
"As far as the players go, we listen to the NBA, not the governor." Gregg Popovich on Texas Governor Abbott removing the mask mandate.
— Steve Popper (@StevePopper) March 2, 2021
Not only that, but Texas was recently hit quite hard by a cold front that caused all sorts of issues throughout the state while adding more chaos to the mix certainly isn't something that should be applauded. It hardly comes as a surprise that Popovich wasted absolutely no time in pointing out what a terrible idea this could ultimately turn out to be.
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich called it "pretty mystifying" for Texas Governor Greg Abbott to lift mask mandates while the pandemic is still going on pic.twitter.com/fRrSelcchB
— Mark Medina (@MarkG_Medina) March 3, 2021
It is also worth noting that this isn't the first time that the legendary Spurs head coach has criticized Governor Abbott and others at the state level in Texas.
“We have a lieutenant governor who decided he doesn’t want to listen to Fauci and those people any more,” Popovich previously said over the summer, via Yahoo! Sports. “That makes a lot of sense. How safe can that be? The messaging is ridiculous.
“The governor goes back and forth based on whether he has to satisfy Trump or listen to the numbers — politics show maybe he better do this because the virus has done that. But no overall policy, no principle. It’s all about politics. It’s all about what’s good for them. And ‘them’ means Trump. Because they’re all cowards and they’re all afraid.”
Many people throughout both the state of Texas and the United States have indeed already begun the vaccination process. However, that certainly doesn't mean that the country is out of the woods just yet and the Spurs head coach isn't happy.
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