[Deitsch] According to a Turner Sports source, Allie LaForce gave LeBron James a heads up prior to the Popovich question.

When people are asked interview questions like this, they brief the person to not catch them off guard (in most interviews, otherwise the "star" would be potentially upset for not knowing or being able to prepare in some way). Whether you want to believe it or not, the NBA is still a show and LeBron is a star of that show. It's the right thing to do to brief him. Onto the question of bringing up the passing of Pop's wife, you have to imagine that Pop is going through a really hard time right now and needs all the support he can get. What better way than having the people you've worked with and a lot you consider your family to reach out and take a moment from a game to address a serious personal matter. People are acting like this was the interviewer telling LeBron that his own wife had passed away. The important thing here is that Pop feels supported in a trying time and I think that TNT made a choice to use their power to send the NBA family's support. You can speculate all you want on whether they did this to get higher ratings or whatever, but I'm glad they did it, if I was Pop going through the shittiest moment of my life, it would help seeing everyone come together and somehow, send their well wishes, being there with me. Yes, interviewers and media can be shitty at times, but I thought they handled this pretty well to send stars condolences and show the impact that this woman had on the NBA family.

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