Spurs mascot hilariously thwarts yet another bat attack in San Antonio

Staff writer

Sat, Feb 2, 2019, 9:14 PM

A bat invaded the Spurs’ game against the Pelicans on Saturday, only to be captured by the Spurs mascot hilariously donned in a Batman costume. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

The bats are back in San Antonio.

Just two days after bats swooped in and invaded the court during the San Antonio Spurs’ matchup against the Brooklyn Nets, bats once again interrupted the Spurs’ game against the New Orleans Pelicans just minutes into the contest.

The game was blown dead instantly, and multiple players attempted to wrangle the mammal quickly. LaMarcus Aldridge threw the ball at it — which didn’t work — and multiple players from the bench threw sweat towels.

Rudy Gay, though, was no help at all. Gay sprinted away instantly, running behind the official on the baseline.

The bat continued to fly around the floor until finally the Spurs mascot, The Coyote, sprinted on the court with a net in, fittingly enough, a Batman costume.

The “BatYote” hunted the bat down before making a diving catch, capturing the bat in his net.

Naturally, the crowd went wild.

It wasn’t as entertaining as Manu Ginobili’s famous “bat slap” in 2009, but the BatYote takes a close second at the AT&T Center.

And now that Ginobili is retired and out of the picture, maybe BatYote has picked up some new, permanent responsibilities with the team.

The bat attack, though, didn’t slow the Spurs down. San Antonio cruised to a 113-108 win against the Pelicans behind 25 points and 14 rebounds from Aldridge. The win marked the Spurs’ fifth straight victory.

Brook Lopez is “making himself available” for a rogue bat

Upon the sudden “bat infestation problem in the NBA,” SB Nation’s Matt Ellentuck asked Milwaukee Bucks center Brook Lopez on Saturday how he’d react to a bat on the court.

Lopez’s answer is, without a doubt, the best answer any player could have given.

“If you’ve learned anything from the modern superhero myth, if you see a bat around and it bites you, you have a 75 percent chance of ending up a superhero,” Lopez told Ellentuck. “Otherwise you’ll probably get really sick. But it’d be cool to be a superhero. You don’t need to be too afraid, I’d say give it a shot.”

With the bat infestation problem in the NBA, I decided to ask Brook Lopez what he'd do if a bat was near him on the court.
I never expected this response. pic.twitter.com/TLTL5BkOTA
— Matt Ellentuck (@mellentuck) February 3, 2019