Gregg Popovich may have given a Memphis server a $5,000 tip
San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich is a fine-tippin’, wine-sippin’ mensch of a man. The NBA has known this for decades, and now the rest of the world has some visual evidence to support what already could have been deduced with guesswork.
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Though this will no doubt embarrass five-time champion (especially after the initial Reddit publisher forgot to obscure crucial credit card data on their first swipe), it’s good to see the character continue to reveal itself with Coach Pop, in the form of what appears to be a $5,000 tip on top of a $815.73 tab at McEwen’s Memphis, “known for its wine selection,” according to the San Antonio Express-News:
Goat Popovich left a $5,000 tip pic.twitter.com/9yFP6SDYNl
— Rube (@Rubethedude) April 25, 2017
The image of the nice enough tip, a 611 percent gratuity, was originally spotted on a Reddit thread.
Though McEwen’s owner Bert Smithe told Kelsey Bradshaw at the San Antonio Express-News that “coach Popovich has been in our restaurant in the past multiple times,” he would not confirm to the paper that Popovich was in the restaurant on April 21 (an off night between Spurs playoff games), because the restaurant does not “discuss anything that goes on when VIPs are in the building.”
It’s an altogether cheerier one than the image given to us earlier in the Spurs postseason run, out of San Antonio.
Apparently the Spurs logo is as popular a tattoo design among San Antonio fans as it is alleged members of the Tango Blast prison gang (the Tango Blast prison gang!) have found the Spurs’ decades-old logo to their likin’, and as a result tattoo artists have had to warn Spurs fans of the potential dangers of permanently applying the logo to their flesh. From the San Antonio-Express News:
Laura Rosario, manager at Ring of Fire downtown, said when customers ask for a Spurs-related tattoo, artists give them a heads up.
[…]
“We won’t put it on someone’s neck or face or further down their arm where someone could see it and assume they’re associated with that gang,” she said. “We try to make sure that they know.”
When did gangs start outfitting themselves with tattoos? With tangible, physical manifestations of art symbolizing their civic pride and also gang-related status? Getting out of hand down there in Texas these days, can’t even taint your flesh with some teal and/or silver without a little blowback.
A nice glass of wine might take the edge off that news. Gregg Popovich knows a place in Memphis, if you’re interested.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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