- We know Greg Popovich as a sage veteran,
a legendary coach.
He entered 2022 with five titles and more wins
than any other coach in NBA history.
He's regarded for his intelligence and revered by his peers,
great coaches in their own right.
But he wasn't born a venerable coach.
Babies can't do anything.
There was a time when Popovich had no thought or ambition
of becoming an NBA coach.
Once he became one, he was booed at home games
and nearly fired.
Even winning a ring didn't really endear him to anybody.
Sure, a second ring got him closer to the respect
we see today, but not as close as you'd think.
(gentle music)
Popovich began his career, like most of us, as an unknown.
He played for the air force academy for four years,
briefly considered a career in the CIA,
and then became an assistant coach at his alma mater.
Six years later, he found his calling;
head coach in an academics-first D3 school
that was so small they combined athletic departments
with their nearby sister school.
Seems like a lowly post, but for Popovich, it wasn't.
He didn't have NBA aspirations,
he was just trying to have a nice life.
At Pomona, Popovich got to be a family man,
immersed in the small campus community.
May we all find such a fulfilling pursuit.
His first year record wasn't great,
but six years after that Popovich led the Sagehens
to a conference title and an NCAA tournament berth.
You might think like, yeah,
of course Popovich turned the team around,
he's a legendary NBA coach, he'd dominate D3,
but at this stage of his career
it wasn't really genius that turned Pomona around.
It was the tried and true tactic of recruiting,
something Pomona hadn't done before.
In fact, Popovich didn't really have his own coaching style
nailed down at this point, he was trying things out,
most often defaulting to an impersonation of Bobby Knight.
And sure there are flashes of Knight-like
demonstrative anger in the Popovich we know and love today,
but those seem pretty genuine to him,
not an affected impersonation.
In 1987, Pop took a sabbatical from Pomona
to be a volunteer assistant coach with Larry Brown
at the University of Kansas,
and Brown really liked Popovich.
While generally unpaid internships and the like
are bullshit, this one wasn't so bad.
Popovich started to find himself as a coach
and he made friends in high places.
But when Larry Brown was promoted to the NBA,
Popovich wasn't so sure he wanted to ask Brown
to take him along.
First, he didn't wanna leave his sweet set up at Pomona.
Second, he was bashful.
He was a D3 coach, how's he gonna ask for a job in the NBA?
In the end, he asked and received
an assistant coach position with Brown and the Spurs.
There still wasn't much public perception of Popovich
at this point, he was simply lumped in
with all of Brown's assistants as new to the NBA.
Out of the public eye, however,
Popovich was doing something right.
He certainly impressed the Spurs management.
When they fired Larry Brown, they kept Popovich on,
and the following season offered him more money to stay.
But Don Nelson offered him an assistant job based just off
seeing him on the opposing bench a handful of times.
And that's where Pop went.
Two years later, the Spurs came calling again
with an offer to be GM.
From assistant coach to GM?
Hard to see how in the world he was qualified for that.
But perhaps those who were working with Popovich up close
caught glimpses of what he would be.
And even those who were barely aware of Popovich
weren't upset by his jump to GM.
The Spurs were in upheaval after a disappointing postseason
and besides, Nelson and Brown vouched for Popovich,
that's gotta be worth something.
For the next two seasons people liked Pop's management
when the Spurs won and doubted him when they lost.
Reasonable enough.
At the start of the '97 season,
the Spurs were considered title contenders,
but then David Robinson got hurt and missed
the first 18 games, of which the Spurs won only three.
Not great, but like, injuries happen,
can't really blame anybody--oh.
Popovich fired coach Bob Hill in a rather unceremonious way
even though Hill had led the Spurs
to 121 wins over two seasons. Huh.
Well, don't worry, Popovich had, in his opinion,
an excellent replacement lined up.
His confidence certainly had grown since the days
he was afraid to call Larry Brown
and ask for an assistant job.
Up until this power grab,
people had given Popovich the benefit of the doubt.
But at this point? He was nothing more
than a snake in the grass.
There was anger that might have gotten exaggerated,
but that's how worked up everyone was.
Who the hell did Greg Popovich think he was?
Also, he fired Hill and instituted himself
on the very same day Robinson was set to return.
Pretty convenient.
Spurs fans were disgusted with Popovich, which sounds wrong,
like maybe I haven't done my research,
so let me give you some proof.
At Pop's first home game, fans waved pro-Bob Hill signs
and anti-Greg Popovich signs.
During the starting lineups
the announcer mumbled Popovich's name.
Fans still heard it, and you could tell
because they were booing.
When the Spurs had a terrible season
fans felt vindicated in their hostility.
To be fair, Robinson only came back for six games
before getting injured again,
but also nobody felt like being fair to Greg Popovich.
In a local media poll 92% of fans wanted Popovich gone,
but, uh, he is the GM, what's he gonna do, fire himself?
In response to the poll, Popovich said,
"It's never been my goal to be the king of prom."
And then he signed a multi-year deal.
See, Popovich was working on something
and found no need to explain that to his detractors.
He trusted his process, but wasn't so defensive
that he had to tell people to trust the process.
From the moment he took over as coach
he was reinventing the Spurs.
It was back to basics.
He slashed their playbook, refocused the team on defense
and emphasized effort over wins and losses,
with the hope that that would of course lead to wins.
While his public-facing persona was that of
a hubristic self-appointed dictator who couldn't win games,
with his players he was a totally different guy,
as in 2020 former Spurs center Will Purdue described.
And besides, that whole couldn't win games part
was a blessing in disguise
'cause the Spurs won the '97 draft lottery,
which was a real windfall.
The '97 draft had an obvious first pick.
Expectations rose and were not met.
Look out Popovich. This is gonna get ugly.
To his players his back-to-basics approach
was a foundation to build on.
To everyone else, it was all Popovich could come up with
because he sucked.
He was called at best an assistant with assistant's ideas.
We're blurring the author's photo here,
not because we don't have the rights,
but to spare him the humiliation.
Coincidentally, we don't have the rights.
When the Spurs sputtered to a 6-8 start
in the lockout-shortened '99 season,
Popovich again heard boos with a San Antonian accent.
Rumors were swirling.
Popovich was on the chopping block.
Yeah, he's GM, but the fans fervor against him
was so strong, even being his own boss couldn't save him.
There was a replacement lined up,
former Spur fan favorite and Spurs broadcaster, Doc Rivers.
The players heard the rumors, most loudly was the one
about how if they fell to 6-9 Pop was a goner.
But that whole "fans hate me, players like me" thing
Popovich had going paid off.
As the bus drove the Spurs
to what could be Popovich's final game,
Avery Johnson made sure everyone knew
they were playing for Pop's life.
He gave Mario Elie an individual pep talk
admitting they both needed to step up.
David Robinson shed his quiet dignity
and delivered an impassioned pregame speech.
And the gang saved their coach,
but they didn't convince anyone to like him.
The Spurs won their next nine games in a row,
but Popovich didn't get any credit,
even though he should have.
Popovich changed up the offense,
putting more trust in his point guard
and convincing his veteran all star to take a step back and
let the young hot shot become their first offensive option.
These were effective changes.
The Spurs finished the regular season with the best record
in the west, lost just one game on the way to the finals,
and then beat the Knicks in five games to take the title.
Greg Popovich turned a 6-8 start
into a championship.
He silenced his critics.
Oh, ah, sorry, I misspoke.
He barely slowed down his critics.
A championship wasn't enough to sway perception
into the positive.
I mean, San Antonio fans stopped booing him
and started cheering for the team,
but that's as good as it got.
Basketball fans found Popovich's system of slow,
methodical Duncan on the block offense boring.
The media still doubted his intelligence
and fellow coaches didn't consider him a real champion.
The following season didn't give Popovich a chance
to prove anyone wrong.
Duncan got injured and missed the playoffs.
The Spurs were out in the first round.
In 2001, Popovich led San Antonio
to the best record in the league.
But in the Western conference finals
they were soundly crushed by the Lakers.
Phil Jackson made fun of Popovich and his staff,
nicknaming them "the simulator crew"
'cause none of them had ever played in the NBA.
You know what? I'd like to take a moment to mention that
in 2017 Pop passed Phil Jackson on the all time win list.
Just feels like the right time to bring that up.
Okay, back to 2001.
Pop took the brunt of the blame
for the Spurs playoff collapse
and there were again calls for him to be fired.
But remember, he was also building the team
and he had a process for that as well.
Popovich the GM could help out Popovich the coach.
Tim Duncan had been a free agent before the 2001 season.
Orlando and recurrent Popovich foil Doc Rivers
nearly lured Duncan away.
But he stayed in San Antonio
because of his relationship with Popovich.
In preparation for David Robinson's approaching retirement,
Popovich looked to recruit from Europe
more aggressively than other teams.
He drafted French point guard Tony Parker,
28th overall in 2001.
Many doubted Parker.
He was small and had played for a French team
with a name that made it seem like
they played a game other than basketball.
Sounds fun, just different.
But Pop knew what he was doing.
He had also drafted Manu Ginobili back in '99
but Ginobili didn't join the Spurs until the '03 season.
It's in Popovich's development of Ginobili
that we see something that sets him apart as a coach.
Ginobili wanted to create.
He wasn't satisfied or that useful waiting in the corner
for Duncan to pass him the ball.
Instead of forcing Manu to change and fit his offense,
Popovich changed the offense.
There aren't a lot of coaches who would change
their tried and true system to best utilize a sub.
With some new faces buttressing the twin towers,
the Spurs won another title in 2003.
And finally the perception of Popovich
started to tilt toward how we see him today.
Local media penned retrospectives on his life
that didn't mention the unpleasantness
of his rise to head coach
or even his less than glamorous start at Pomona.
They didn't call him boring, they called him "no nonsense".
But it wasn't like he was considered
an all-time great just yet.
Phil Jackson certainly didn't think
Pop belonged in the elite coach's club.
He again brought up his "'99 needs an asterisk" theory.
If two championships didn't put Pop there, what would?
Three championships.
Why? What was so different about the 2005 title?
Well, Popovich won with a new iteration of the Spurs.
The twin towers were the backbone of the '99 and '03 wins,
though admittedly David Robinson was less potent in '03.
Whereas the 2005 title was captured by the big three.
Popovich proved he could adapt and win it all
with multiple rosters.
In short, he made it very difficult to doubt his ability,
and then he added some more titles,
the most wins of any coach.
And we find ourselves living in a world
where Greg Popovich is a legendary genius coach,
the best of the best, so great we can't even fathom
there was a time when he didn't see himself in the NBA.
Or a time when he nearly lost his job.
Or a time when he was called an assistant
with assistant's ideas.
Good thing that one's in print.
Thanks for watching, everybody.
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For Secret Base, I'm Clara Morris.
Good night and good game.