Pop surprised Sarver didn’t wear ‘chicken suit’

Robert Sarver once flapped his arms like a chicken at Gregg Popovich. (USATSI)

There's a bit of a history between the San Antonio Spurs and the Phoenix Suns. Over the past 10 years, we've seen the Spurs and Suns have some incredible battles in the regular season and the playoffs. We've seen teams knocked out of the postseason, hip-checks that caused big time playoff suspensions, and a lot of blood, sweat, and tears spilled while both of these teams try to get the better of each other. Apparently, that's now spilled into the preseason.

For Thursday's 121-90 drubbing of the Spurs by the Suns, San Antonio failed to send coach Gregg Popovich or stars Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili. They also sat Kawhi Leonard, Patty Mills, and Tiago Splitter due to various ailments. It caused Suns' owner Robert Sarver to get on the microphone during a timeout and apologize to the fans for not getting what they paid to see. None of this surprised Popovich, except for maybe the outfit Sarver was wearing when he delivered the apology.

Here's word-for-word Pop quote, since people seem to enjoy it: “The only thing that surprises me is that he didn't say it in a chicken suit.

— Jeff McDonald (@JMcDonald_SAEN) October 18, 2014

This dates back to a 2005 incident between the Suns and Spurs. When Popovich held Duncan and Ginobili out of a regular season game in 2005, Sarver mocked the Spurs' bench by flapping his arms like a chicken. The Suns ended up winning that game 107-101 in overtime as Amar'e Stoudemire feasted on the Duncan-less Spurs for 44 points. Clearly, this still sticks with Popovich considering he's firing off a salvo about it nine years later.

During Thursday's game, Sarver promised a gift to fans who mailed in their tickets with a return envelope, but did not specify what that gift may be at the time. It's a nice marketing move by Sarver, overall. He's "taking care of" the fans from that night, even if they should probably not going to expect stars to play and give their all during a random preseason exhibition, especially when it's the Spurs coming to town.

This may or may not be a reenactment of Sarver's display from back in 2005.

Topics: Kawhi Leonard, Manu Ginobili, Patty Mills, Stoudemire,Amar'e, Tiago Splitter, Tim Duncan, San Antonio Spurs, NBA

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