Tonight's Game 3 matchup between the San Antonio Spurs and Golden State Warriors at AT&T Center will have quite an emotional burden hang on it following the death of Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich's wife, Erin, yesterday after a long battle with an illness.
Coach Popovich will not be in attendance tonight, but longtime Spurs shooting guard vouches to play harder than ever to show his support for the Popovich family.
“We are devastated. We are hurting,” Ginobili said on Thursday. “We all know the type of guy Pop is. Not many people know the type of girl that Erin was. It’s painful to go through this — there’s never a good time. We’re all hurting. We want to be next to Pop. We want to support him. We want to go out there and compete today. For sure, we are struggling. It’s not an easy day.”
A video of Ginobili's emotional interview with members of the media, which was kindly posted to Twitter by RJ Marquez of KSAT.com, can be viewed below.
Manu Ginobili became emotional today when discussing the death of Erin Popovich, the wife of Gregg Popovich…"We are all devastated, all hurting." Manu ends by saying "not having him (Pop) here today is hard." (vid via @markmendez ) #KSATnews #KSATsports #Spurs #NBA pic.twitter.com/gGtX6ATDhK
— RJ Marquez (@KSATRJ) April 19, 2018
Spurs veteran point guard Tony Parker also gave his condolences to the Popovich family and spoke very highly of Erin.
Earlier today, the Spurs announced that lead assistant coach Ettore Messina would coach the team Thursday night against the Warriors.