San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich is finally addressing the Marcus Morris situation that left the team with something of a black eye this summer.
Speaking at media day on Monday, Popovich said the Spurs were “blindsided” by Morris reneging on his verbal agreement to sign with the team. Pop noted the team already had traded Davis Bertans to the Washington Wizards to create cap space for Morris.
“It was more than difficult to lose Davis,” he said, per Tom Orsborn of the San Antonio Express-News. “Let’s just say that was an unfortunate situation that was handled unprofessionally on a couple of different levels.
“Davis was a special player as we all know, and he was young and getting better and better,” Popovich continued. “So, yeah, we hated losing him.”
Morris agreed to a two-year, $20 million deal with San Antonio this summer after they dealt the 26-year-old sharpshooter Bertans and restructured their free agent contract with DeMarre Carroll to accommodate him. Just days later though, Morris changed his mind and went on to sign a one-year, $15 million contract with the New York Knicks. As a result, the Spurs went out and got free agent forward Trey Lyles instead but had no way of getting Bertans back.
The Spurs were reportedly “pissed” at the time of Morris’ reversal of course, and it sounds like Popovich is still plenty unhappy over two months later.
