"I'm so sorry for what happened in today's game, and on behalf of Bruce, Robert, and Manu, I would like to express my deep apologies to all of you, and to all the fans who care about and support the NBA."

In the early morning of June 16, 2007, the press conference after the fourth game of the Pacers and Spurs finals was already crowded with reporters' media room, and as soon as Popovich spoke, it was instantly quiet.

In fact, for the result of this game, these media reporters sitting at the scene are not very concerned at the moment, because in today's game, the largest Finals group brawl in NBA history was staged, because Bruce Bowen fouled Meng Xu on the defensive end, which led to a minute-long melee between six players on both sides.

So when Popovich and Rick Carlisle appeared in the media room, the reporters on the scene were as excited as bloodthirsty sharks seeing their prey, and they couldn't wait to attack the managers of both teams, pulling some material and fierce information out of their mouths.

But what they didn't expect was that as soon as Popovich came to the stage, he lowered his posture very low, bowed directly to the reporters in the audience, and apologized to these reporters on behalf of several players who participated in the group brawl on the field, or apologized to the audience groups under these media.

"An old fox is an old fox." After Popovich opened his mouth to apologize, Rick Carlisle was also stunned at first, but soon Rick Carlisle guessed Popovich's true intentions, such a scale of group fighting, several players who were expelled on the spot, are bound to face a ban, the Pacers have enough roster depth, Jermaine O'Neal and James Posey are suspended, and NN Hilario and Darko Milicic can be on top, but the Spurs are different, the lack of Manu Ginobili is simply fatal for the SpursThe course of today's game has fully illustrated all this, so Popovich's purpose in doing this must be to lower his profile and win the sympathy of the media, so as to avoid Manu Ginobili being banned and punished.

Popovich's move is also very helpless, after losing today's game, the situation faced by the Spurs is very bad, if Ginobili is suspended, the Spurs' situation will undoubtedly be even worse, so Popovich can only hope that after lowering his posture and striving for public sympathy, the league can open the net, Robert Hawley and Bruce Bowen don't care, the ban will be banned, the key is Ginobili, if the Spurs still want to win, they can't do without Ginobili.

"We won this game today in a very thrilling game, the Spurs were very tough defensively, and it was just a little bit like Meng going to be carried off the court, so I've always been very much in favor of the league's call that the NBA is green, healthy, and we can't continue to tolerate fouls that could end a professional player's basketball career." Popovich wants to erase this group fight lightly, Rick Carlisle naturally can't let Popovich get his wish, although the league adds a ban punishment, the Pacers' second-in-command Jermaine O'Neal will definitely not be able to run, but compared to the impact of losing Ginobili on the Spurs, the impact of no Jermaine O'Neal on the Pacers is undoubtedly much smaller, coupled with Bruce Bowen's behavior of putting down Meng Xu behind his back, it really makes Rick Carlisle angry, If Meng Xu was injured in that malicious foul by Bruce Bowen, the Pacers would be completely finished, so Rick Carlisle has shown a resolute attitude that Bruce Bowen must be punished severely.

And the reporters in the audience, after hearing Rick Carlisle's words, immediately were restless, Rick Carlisle's words came out, which means that he is going to stand on the opposite side of Popovich today, the two bishops of the two teams pinched each other at the post-game press conference, which is undoubtedly exactly what they want to see, so after Rick Carlisle spoke, these reporters swarmed the microphone at Rick Carlisle, and also asked questions that added fuel to the fire.

Popovich is bent on downplaying the impact of this group fight, and Rick Carlisle is a clear-cut attitude to the league to punish Bruce Bowen, and for a while, the two head coaches, who have huge influence in the NBA, directly hardened themselves at the post-game press conference.

But both Popovich and Rick Carlisle obviously underestimated the impact of this group fight, under the deliberate promotion of the league and the vigorous hype of the media close to the league, the ratings of this round of the Pacers and Spurs Finals are hitting new highs, not only far away from the ratings of the Finals in the past ten seasons since Jordan's retirement, but even the third game of the Finals broke the 21.3% NBA Finals history created by the Bulls and Jazz The highest single game rating, if nothing else, This year's Finals also has a good chance of breaking the 18.7% Finals average created by the Bulls and Jazz in '98.

The fourth game, which decided the direction of the entire finals, created a horror rating of 22.6% in one fell swoop, and almost all the media in North America gathered in San Antonio.

"This is not the first time that bastard, including me, there have been many players who have been murdered by him, I watched that game at home, that bastard's actions were completely aimed at people, when Meng was directly put down by him, my family and I were all stunned, this guy is completely a butcher, he should be banned for life." Vince Carter, who has been stepped by Bruce Bowen many times and even almost ruined his entire career, stood up and spoke out against Bruce Bowen shortly after the end of this game, and after Vince Carter, Kobe, who had a good relationship with Meng Xu and was also blackmailed by Bruce Bowen many times, Allen Iverson and others also stood up to denounce Bruce Bowen.

"Bruce's defense is really dirty, he should be punished by the league, but Meng is not a good bird, if Bruce is a butcher, then Meng is a sinister villain, so I don't think there is anything wrong with what Bruce did, the NBA is a league where the strong survive and the weak eliminate, if you say that my statement is wrong, then you can go and ask Meng what he did to Latrier in the first place? What was done to me and Ben? Those who condemn Bruce Bowen naturally condemn Meng Xu, especially Ron Artest, who has a "deep hatred" with Meng Xu, when most NBA players are accusing Bruce Bowen, he jumped out to be the outlier who everyone is drunk and sober, it is obvious that it can be heard from Ron Artest's tone, until now he is extremely hostile to Meng Xu.

"What Ron said is indeed right, if such a foul has to be banned, then Meng Xu should have been banned a long time ago, Bruce's foul really shouldn't be, but has Meng Xu been hurt in any way?" After the interview with Ron Artest, the media that really had good things went to Sprewell, who has been retired for many years, and Sprewell's attitude was also very clear, he and Ron Artest had the same opinion, as for the group fight that occurred in the arena, Ron Artest and Sprewell were completely silent.

Finally, after repeated discussions with the league's top management and the NBA disciplinary committee, the NBA league announced the punishment for the group fight, the initiator Bruce Bowen was banned for one game and fined $15,000, and the rest of the players involved in the group fight, Jermaine O'Neal, James Posey, Tony Allen, Robert Hawley, and Manu Ginobili, will all be banned for one game and fined $10,000.