Popovich, finally, gets his turn at leading
LAS VEGAS — Gregg Popovich walked into USA Basketball’s first team meeting in advance of World Cup training camp, and it seemed to some in the room that he was having a little difficulty keeping his emotions in check.
He talked about tradition, about what it means to play for your country, about expectations, about sacrifice, about playing the right way, about respect for opponents.
The only downside was that when he was done speaking, the first practice was still about 18 hours away.
“Shoot, from the get-go, I think everybody was ready to play a game or run through a brick wall for him after that talk,” Brooklyn guard Joe Harris said. With that, Camp Pop had arrived. Popovich’s first training camp practice as coach of the U.S. men’s national team went into the books Monday, less than a month before the Americans will begin play at the FIBA World Cup in China. The U.S. has won the last two World Cup gold medals, both won under now-former coach Mike Krzyzewski, and now it’s Popovich’s turn to lead the red, white and blue.
“It’s been on my mind every day, what I want to do and what needs to be done,” said Popovich, the longtime San Antonio Spurs coach who was picked as Krzyzewski’s successor nearly four years ago. “It’s been like thinking about two teams at the same time for that period. But Coach K did that for 12 years. So I think I can probably try to do the same.”
Popovich was all over the floor in his first practice, pulling some guys aside for 1-on-1 chats during a scrimmage and other times gathering the entire team around him to discuss the nuance of proper box-out technique.
“You can’t help but teach here and there,” Popovich said.
Popovich calls it “a huge responsibility” to both represent the country and continue the program’s long tradition of winning. He and his assistants have been meeting for weeks, going over every possible detail.