San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
POPOVICH GREGG POPOVICH
ing to be welcomed back if I didn’t start calling him Pop.”
A year later, Donovan made the jump to the NBA to become the coach at Oklahoma City. Popovich sought out Donovan that summer at the league’s annual coaches meetings, offering a dinner invitation.
“He would always toast Tim Duncan — ‘Here’s to Tim Duncan,’ ” Donovan said. “I always appreciated that he had great respect for his players. He had a great humility and great relationships with those guys.”
The king of longevity
For Miami coach Erik Spoelstra, his first lasting Popovich memory dates to 1999. Spolestra was a Heat assistant then and his team was out of the playoffs after a first-round ouster.
When it came time for the NBA Finals between the Spurs and New York Knicks, Heat head coach Pat Riley reconvened his staff in Miami for a retreat.
“We spent some time as a group working out, golfing and then watching the games at night,” Spoelstra said.
That was Popovich’s first championship. What strikes Spoelstra now is how long ago it seems.
“I felt like I was 15,” Spoeltstra said. “It really is remarkable. It shows you his longevity of excellence.”
Fifteen years after the Popovich’s first championship win over the Knicks, the Spurs beat Spoelstra’s Miami squad for title No. 5. The 2014 team, built mostly around Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili — with an assist from an upand-coming youngster named Kawhi Leonard — was different than the Duncan-David Robinson team Spoelstra recalled pummeling the Knicks in 1999.
“That’s what’s been incredible,” Spoelstra said. “They’ve been able to do it so many different times with so many different styles of basketball. The league has
changed a lot and he’s been able to adapt and win with whatever personnel, whatever type of style that makes the most sense at the time.”
Pop the professor
The Kings’ Gentry has known Popovich since before he recorded NBA victory No. 1. The two first came into contact at the University of Kansas, where Gentry was an assistant under Larry Brown.
Popovich arrived in 1987, taking a sabbatical from his job at Pomona-Pitzer in California to study under one of college basketball’s most renowned masterminds.
When Brown left to take the Spurs job in 1988, Gentry and Popovich joined him. What Gentry remembers of Popovich as a college coach remains today, as he coaches the most youthful roster
of his Spurs tenure.
“He loves teaching,” Gentry said. “He loves young guys.”
Though Gentry would be hardpressed to predict the 39-year-old small college coach who showed up at Kansas in the late 1980s would go on to become the winningest coach in NBA history, he is not surprised at the name Popovich has made for himself in the sport.
“You could see he was an extremely bright guy and he had a good grasp of the game,” Gentry said. “Given an opportunity, you know he was going to be something.”
Gentry believes Popovich’s the sheer number of NBA victories will only be part of the coach’s enduring legacy.
“I think it’s great, but him molding people into good basketball
players and good people is much more important to him than the number of wins he has,” Gentry said. “That’s who he is.”
‘Pop’s still here’
As Popovich approached Nelson’s record, the Suns’ Williams knew better than to bring it up with his old boss.
“When you’ve been around Pop, he doesn’t allow for that,” Williams said. “You’ve got to focus on the task at hand, the business in front of you.”
Williams played three seasons for the Spurs from 1995-98. He freely admits now he did not understand Popovich then.
“He was the only coach I’ve ever had who would cuss you out in practice in the afternoon then call and invite you to dinner at night,” Williams said.
Williams was already gone by the time the Spurs began winning championships in 1999. When his playing career ended in 2003, Williams returned to the Spurs to serve as a coaching intern.
He had come to appreciate the method to Popovich’s madness.
“Once they got rolling,” Williams said, “you could see he was going to be regarded as maybe the best coach of all time.”
As the years, seasons and victories have piled up, Williams has become most impressed by Popovich’s stamina and unwavering passion for the job.
“Tim’s retired. Manu’s retired. Tony’s gone. David’s gone,” Williams said. “All these guys are gone and Pop’s still here. It speaks to his love for the game, his love for the city, love for the organization. You put all that together, it’s an equation for this to happen.”
One day soon, Williams might even work up the nerve to text Popovich his congratulations. He won’t be the only NBA coach celebrating Popovich’s accomplishment.
“He won’t like it,” Williams said, “but I think all of us are happy he’ll be the one to carry that torch.”