‘You got to make the main thing the main thing’

As a 34-year-old, Damon Stoudamire played 31 games for the San Antonio Spurs during the 2007-08 season. He was at the end of his NBA playing career and part of a team coached by one of the league’s best in Gregg Popovich.

Now in his first season as Georgia Tech’s coach, Stoudamire recognizes that his short spell in Texas with Popovich influenced the way he coaches and the way he now leads a program.

“Not to overreact on things. You got to make the main thing the main thing,” Stoudamire explained on his weekly radio show. “We tend to overreact to certain things, then when you actually look at the game, it might not have impacted the game in a way you thought.”

Stoudamire told the story of the 2008 Western Conference semifinals and how the Spurs beat the New Orleans Hornets (and current Tech assistant Bonzi Wells) in a seven-game series. After falling behind 2-0, then 3-2, Popovich never panicked and assured his team that all the Hornets had done was win their home games, just as they were expected to do.

But going into Game 7 in New Orleans, Popovich switched team hotels, nixed the team shootaround before the game and called a team meeting.

“It was simple,” Stoudamire said of Popovich’s message. “‘They ain’t been here before. We’ve been here. We know what it takes. They don’t. It’s as simple as that.’”

The Spurs went out and won 91-82 to advance to the Western Conference finals, where they lost in five games to the Los Angeles Lakers. But the lesson from that postseason was imprinted on Stoudamire forever.

“It’s staying process-driven and not overreacting to things you just don’t got control over. You control the controllables, and you try to always make the main thing the main thing,” he said. “Those things always stand out with me.”

ERIC GAY/ASSOCIATED PRESS Gregg Popovich coached Tech coach Damon Stoudamire for one season in San Antonio. Stoudamire said that one season was a big influence on him as a coach.