Perfect fit overdue for Popovich, Team USA
LAS VEGAS — Gregg Popovich claims he never aspired to be here, and perhaps somewhere along the way he convinced himself that falsehood was true. At least twice in his life, his national team informed him his services were not needed, and he apparently coped with that rejection by deciding it was pointless to covet a spot that wasn’t his.
“It’s not something you want,” Popovich said matter-of-factly of his dream job Monday. “When I was called, I accepted.”
But as he opened his first training camp as head coach of USA Basketball this week, it was difficult not to recognize the many ways this is the culmination in the career of a legend who served his country and ruled a profession, but was kept from combining the two at the highest level until now.
Maybe it isn’t vindication for 1972, when, having completed a stellar career at the Air Force Academy and leading the U.S. Olympic trials in field-goal percentage, percentage, Popovich was told by one of the coaches, Bob Knight, he wasn’t good enough to make the team.
Maybe it doesn’t make up for 2004, when he had established himself as the best coach in the NBA and was considered a frontrunner to lead USA Basketball, only to learn that Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski had been chosen instead.
And maybe it would be a reach to use a word like “fulfillment” to describe whatever is being felt by a man who constantly reminds people there is more to life than basketball.
But watch him on the practice court at UNLV’s Mendenhall Center, blowing a whistle to halt a scrimmage and explain to established NBA veterans the intricacies of boxing out on free-throws in the international game. Listen to those players marvel over his intensity, his engagement, his energy. Then ask the old friends who know him best about whether Popovich wanted this job all along.
“Are you kidding?” former Spurs assistant P.J. Carlesimo said, standing courtside. “I don’t know if you can overstate how meaningful this is to him.”
Part of the significance, even if Popovich never will admit it, is the widespread belief in basketball circles that Popovich’s designation as head coach was long overdue. While no one disputes Krzyzewski did a marvelous job in his 12 years atop USA Basketball, leading the team to three Olympic gold medals and two FIBA World Cup championships, there always was a sense that Popovich deserved a chance, too, and he finally got it when he was announced as Krzyzewski’s replacement.
Even though the first official competition won’t come until Team USA starts play in the World Cup in China on Aug. 31, Popovich said that since taking the job in 2017, “it’s been on (his) mind every day.” Throughout the NBA season, he thinks about potential lineups, and the way pieces might fit.
The catch, of course, is that the team that convened at UNLV looks nothing like the one Popovich might have envisioned over the past couple of years. At a time in which stars are more concerned than ever about fatigue — and with next month’s World Cup not quite as glamorous as next year’s Olympics — only one AllNBA player (Boston’s Kemba Walker) and two other All-Stars (Kyle Lowry and Khris Middleton) remain on the 17-man roster that Popovich and his staff (including Golden State’s Steve Kerr) will pare to 12 before departing for China.
The Americans remain the favorites, but could receive a test from Serbia or Spain. And with no LeBron James, Kevin Durant, James Harden or Steph Curry, Popovich’s job will be tougher than Krzyzewski’s was.
Not that the team’s lack of star power put a damper on training camp. Rockets forward P.J. Tucker raved about Popovich’s message during the first team meeting, and said the 70-year-old coach already has won over the entire group.
“I love how much he cares,” Tucker said. “I want him to coach me. We all do. He’s so into it.”
Said Kerr: “I think he’s invigorated. He’s really excited about what’s ahead.”
Part of what’s ahead for Popovich, of course, is speaking for the United States on an international stage. Neither he nor Kerr have shied away from addressing nonbasketball topics in recent years, and there probably will come a time in the next month or so when Popovich will be asked to address the news story of the day, or America’s place in the world. The closest he came Monday was a hopeful exhortation.
“We can’t fix the divisiveness of the country,” Popovich said. “But what we can do is be a great example of how people come together for a common goal and achieve it.”
If in that moment Popovich sounded like a guy who was destined for this job all along, well, maybe there was a reason for that. Maybe Knight cutting him 47 years ago pushed him to prove something, and maybe it would have been a waste of Popovich’s talents to have him draw up plays for James and Durant against overmatched Europeans.
Maybe this team of second and third choices is exactly the one Popovich always was meant to lead. Maybe this was the era in which his voice most needed to be heard.
Maybe it’s perfect that it’s his, at last.