The Golden State Warriors will be facing off against the San Antonio Spurs. And both teams have Stephen Curry and Victor Wembanyama, faces of the franchises, out due to, surprisingly, ankle sprains. Yes, both of them rolled their ankles. This means that the Dubs will have to step up and take Pop’s Spurs by the horns.

Not that it’s too big of a problem. But the celebrated coach of San Antonio brings up a concerning thought regarding the Warriors’ revamped Klay Thompson. The “Splash Brother” had talked about how he was planning on following Manu Ginobili in accepting his bench role. And it’s exactly this that Pop has a problem with.

“It’s great that he’s accepted that role. But if he’s like Manu (Ginobili), deep in your brain you don’t really want to do that,” Popovich on Klay Thompson coming off the bench for GSW,” Spurs’ beat writer Jeff tweeted.

When Klay Thompson was relegated to a bench role, many wondered how he would react to the supposed “demotion”. In a pleasantly surprising turn of events, the 4x champion showcased a mature and positive mindset after his first bench game last month. Klay said that there are two options in a situation like this – to either sulk or embrace it and give the best of you on the court. He chose the latter.

And according to him, it was Manu Ginobili’s career that helped him get into this frame of mind. Despite being one of the most decorated and accomplished players in the league history, the man came off the bench for the majority of his career. Something Klay Thompson plans to follow. But Pop seems to have some serious concerns with this.

Gregg Popovich believes Ginobili never fully accepted the bench role

Ginobili was arguably one of the best Sixth Man in the NBA. He was already a pro hooper in Europe when he decided to enter the NBA league. Coming into the league with a decorated resume that included EuroLeague champion, Finals MVP, 2x Italian Cup winner, and a lot more, the Spurs legend dreamed of a similar career. And that automatically meant wanting to be a starter.

Warriors: Klay Thompson’s Mentality Unveiled Amid Diminished Role via Coach Kerr

But unfortunately, Popovich had other plans. And that included letting Ginobili come off the bench; something that wasn’t well-received by him initially. The same Jeff Garcia as above had asked about Ginobili’s reaction to being the first option off the bench in a 2018 presser. “At the beginning it was kind of hard. It took me a while to understand it. To get my ego out of the middle between Pop (Popovich) and me or the game and me and just do what has to be done for a team to be better,” he admitted.

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Despite spending his entire 16 seasons in the famous Big 3, the 4x NBA champion started in just 349 out of the 1057 games he played. So, Popovich’s concern is understandable. How much of this applies to Klay Thompson; that’s something we’ll have to wait and see.