A fan poll of NBA mascots shows that the San Antonio Spurs mascot, known simply as The Coyote, is pretty unpopular, and this doesn’t make much sense.
Play AZ, which looks like a sports betting site based in Arizona, recently asked its readers to rank all NBA mascots from favorites to least favorites, and The Coyote earned an average rating of 2.14 out of five stars, next to last in the 27-candidate field.
(That would mean three teams do not have mascots, but it’s not clear which teams those are.)
The Coyote looks a lot like Wile E Coyote, and according to his stats on the Spurs website, he’s about the same height as legendary 1990s center David Robinson (so about 7’1″, more or less), his jersey number is 2! (with the exclamation point), and his vaccinations are all current.
Other highlights include being introduced in 1983, marrying fellow San Antonio Spurs mascot Ms Coyote in the mid-2000s, and being named the NBA Mascot of the Year in 2014.
The San Antonio Spurs mascot is not popular with fans, one poll shows. This doesn’t make much sense.
While that fan poll doesn’t think too highly of The Coyote, here at Dog O’Day we’re big fans, and are honestly a little irritated by this opinion.
A little more surprising was finding out that one-eighth of the NBA franchises use canine costumed mascots, though there are many other animals, including a gorilla (Suns) and Rumble the bison (Thunder).
The Philadelphia 76ers‘ Franklin the Dog finished 19th, and the Cleveland Cavaliers‘ Moondog was 13th, with the Minnesota Timberwolves‘ Crunch the Wolf was 12th.
On the court, the 2021-2022 San Antonio Spurs are 8-14 as of this writing, which puts them in third in the Southwest Division and just outside of playoff contention at 12th in the Western Conference about a quarter of the way through the season.
The Spurs just lost a close 108-104 battle on the road in Phoenix against the defending runner-up Suns (20-4) on Monday night, December 6.
We wish the Spurs and The Coyote all the best of luck the rest of the season, and for more San Antonio Spurs news, opinions and more, or NBA news in general, within the FanSided Network, see our sister sites Air Alamo and Hoops Habit for all the latest.