Young assistant is a valued voice for Popovich
LAS VEGAS — The truth is the memory has been blacked out. Years later, Will Hardy can make an educated guess about what happened, and he likes to imagine he did not make a complete fool of himself.
But all Hardy remembers for sure is he was “scared to death,” which makes sense. He was barely 25 at the time, a former Division III college player who’d spent three years working his way up from Spurs intern to video coordinator, and he found himself in the film room by himself with Gregg Popovich.
The same Gregg Popovich who had coached four NBA championship teams and was on his way to coaching another.
The same Gregg Popovich who Hardy had seen tear into the likes of future Hall of Famers Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili.
The same Gregg Popovich who famously chewed up and spit out sideline reporters for sport.
Now that same Gregg Popovich was sitting right next to Hardy, and nobody else was there, and the coach, incredibly, wanted the kid’s opinion.
“The first time he asks you, ‘What do you think?’ is a mindblowing experience,” Hardy said. “I have no idea what he was asking about, or what I said. I’m sure I sputtered through some comment about defense.”
Hardy can laugh about the memory — or lack of one — this week, because he’s returning to his roots, so to speak. A month after earning a promotion to a spot on the front row of the Spurs’ assistant coaches, he’s joining Popovich’s USA Basketball operation as a video coordinator all over again.
He knows better than to scoff at the idea of such supposed grunt work. On a Popovich staff, all voices are valued, and they’re expected to be heard. Those voices belong not only to his top assistants, but also to playerdevelopment personnel, statistical analysts, front-office staffers, and, yes, the video guys.
“I love his leadership style,” said Jeff Van Gundy, who has worked closely with Popovich while leading the World Cup qualifying team for USA Basketball and overseeing the practice squad this week. “Totally inclusive. But you better have well thought-out opinions.”
Hardy was not the first Spurs video coordinator to learn that. Among the many distinguished basketball minds preceding him in that decidedly unglamorous job were eventual NBA head coaches Joe Prunty, Mike Budenholzer and James Borrego. Their duties included assembling clips of practice or game action to summarize a scouting report, or a teaching point, or a strategic adjustment.
With the Spurs, that means the unseasoned aspiring coaches in that job get lots of one-on-one time with Popovich, as well as access to team meetings and practices. Borrego once said his days as video coordinator were where “the foundation for me to be an NBA coach was formed.”
And it starts with Popovich — the one so often seen furious and red-faced on the sidelines — asking for input.
“He makes you feel like you’re heard,” Hardy said. “He’s a great communicator, but he’s also a really great listener.”
As Popovich likes to point out, this isn’t simply good-hearted altruism. He doesn’t seek out the opinions of those who surround him just to make them feel important. He does it because he knows they can help.
Often, a new viewpoint is offered by a low-level staffer the public never would recognize. This week at USA Basketball’s World Cup training camp at UNLV, the practice gym is filled with hordes of coaches — head men and assistants, from the NBA and colleges, retired and active — and if any of them have something smart to say, Popovich is eager to hear it.
“I’m not concerned with where a good idea comes from, and I knowmyself well enough to know that I’m not going to have all of the good ideas,” Popovich said. “Anybody who feels comfortable in their own skin, or who has half a brain, should surround themselves with people who are really sharp.”
That’s exactly the Spurs’ assessment of Hardy, who is better known nationally as an unwitting participant in one of this summer’s most masterful press release jokes. When the Spurs officially announced the names of the two assistant coaches to replace the departed Ettore Messina and Ime Udoka, Hardy’s name was mentioned first. Mentioned below him? “Tim Duncan, a 1997 Wake Forest graduate.”
For Hardy, this was the biggest promotion of his career, and it came with everyone laughing at the perfectly Spursian touch of giving one of the greatest players in the history of the sport second billing to a no-name former intern.
Hardy just wants to make one thing clear: He was laughing, too.
“I thought it was hilarious,” Hardy said. “My friends didn’t stop giving me a hard time about it, in a very greatway.”
But Hardy wouldn’t have gotten the opportunity if the Spurs didn’t believe in him, and there’s a good chance he will earn his own branch on Popovich’s towering NBA coaching tree someday.
For now? He keeps himself ready for Popovich’s next question.
Even if he still can’t remember the first one.