For years, TNT sideline reporter Craig Sager and San Antonio Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich were between-quarters adversaries, as Sager, a technicolor marvel, tried constantly to coax something bright out of the game's most drab and dour figure.
As time wore on, though, it became clear that the two were a classic comedy team, fully committed to the bit ... and, more than that, true friends with a strong relationship underneath all the on-camera ribbing.
Popovich lost his partner in the act Thursday after a 2 ½-year battle with acute myeloid leukemia. With the entire NBA community offering tributes, it wouldn't have seemed right for Popovich to speak with reporters about anything else before the Spurs took the floor in Arizona to face the Phoenix Suns. So he didn't. He just talked about his friend.
"I guess on a day like this, basketball has to take a backseat as we all think about somebody who was very unique, very special," he said. "Whether you really knew Craig or not, you got the feeling that he was a special person in a lot of different ways. And right now, I just feel for his family."
While their sideline sparring sessions got the attention and elicited the laughs, their friendship behind the scenes was as real as it gets. When Sager was diagnosed with leukemia in April 2014 -- shelving him for the postseason and preventing him from linking up with Popovich during the Spurs' playoff run -- TNT brought in his son, Craig II, to work the first game of San Antonio's series with the Dallas Mavericks. The coach treated the younger Sager well, but he took the opportunity to speak directly to Dad watching at home ... and even promise to ease up on him if he came back.
"He called the day of my sister Krista's graduation from the University of Georgia because my dad couldn't make it," Sager's son told NBA.com's Shaun Powell in November 2014. "And this was before a game against Portland [in the playoffs]."
About a week later, Sager Jr. was involved in a hit-and-run accident on the Georgia 400 highway that gave his car a serious thrashing (he was OK). As he stood on the side of the road, waiting for help, his cell phone rang. It was Popovich whose Spurs were in the midst of playing the Thunder in the Western Conference Finals.
"Everything OK?" asked Popovich.
Popovich kept communicating with Sager whose son won't reveal much of what Popovich said, choosing to keep such matters private, except to say the calls and letters "were beyond belief."
For just $5 million
Charlie Strong (Batesville, Central Arkansas) was dumped by Texas last month after three subpar seasons as the Longhorns' head football coach, but South Florida snapped him up as its coach last Sunday.
That means Strong is heading to the Sunshine State, and his Texas mansion is up for sale.
The 5-bedroom, 7.5-bath Mediterranean-style estate is privately listed for $4.995 million. The 10,896-square-foot house was built in 2004. The property was most recently valued at $4,640,000 for tax purposes.
Drew Tate of Tate Property has the listing.
"The home is immaculate," Tate told the Austin Business Journal. "It is truly one of the finest private estates in Austin.
"Coach Strong's cachet [creates] additional marketability," Tate said. "Celebrity ownership always gives a home a level of validation that it is 'one of the very best' [properties]."
SPORTS QUIZ
What year did Gregg Popovich become the San Antonio Spurs' head coach?
ANSWER
1996
Sports on 12/18/2016