Pop puts Spurs' loss in perspective: 'NASA discovered 1,200 habitable planets'

With eclectic, wide-ranging interests outside basketball, Gregg Popovich has always enjoyed a keen sense of perspective on the game he's coached as well as anyone in history.

A day after his San Antonio Spurs saw their historic season end in dispiriting fashion Thursday night, Pop offered up a healthy dose of said perspective to the assembled media sowing doom and gloom.

"NASA discovered all those habitable planets the other day," he said, before seeking confirmation of just how many had been discovered. "Twelve hundred habitable planets. And then last night somebody lost a basketball game. Come on, get over yourself."

In truth, of the 1,284 exoplanets recently discovered in the galaxy by NASA's Kepler telescope, only nine are considered capable of harboring life as we know it.

Perhaps that was what the next questioner planned to point out, but Popovich cut him off mid-sentence with: "I don't want to answer your question. You're a radio talk-show guy that just stirs it up."

With a longer offseason than he likely expected after guiding the Spurs to a franchise-record 67 wins in the regular season, perhaps Pop can join disciple Boris Diaw in planning that future trip to space.