Popovich Feuds With Reporter After Team USA Loss

Team USA men’s basketball coach Gregg Popovich got into a heated exchange with a reporter after the U.S. lost to Australia in a tune-up game ahead of the Tokyo Olympics.

The U.S. lost its second straight exhibition game, first losing to Nigeria on Saturday and after leading at the half, and then getting beat by Australia on Monday.

Popovich seemed to be frustrated with some of the questioning from reporter Joe Vardon about the team’s performance, which suggested the team should be dominating its opponents, during the post-game press conference after the loss to Australia in an exhibition game in Las Vegas.

"When you make statements about in the past, just blowing out these other teams … No. 1 you give no respect to the other teams," he said. "I talked to you last time about the same thing. We’ve had very close games against four or five countries in all these tournaments. So, the good teams do not get blown out."

He continued: "There are certain games it might happen in one of the tournaments, world championships, and Olympics when somebody gets blown out but in general, nobody is blowing anybody out for the good teams. So, when you make a statement like that it’s like you assume that’s what’s going on and that’s incorrect."

Team USA basketball will face Argentina at 6 p.m. ET on NBCSN on Tuesday.