End of an Era: Gregg Popovich Steps Down as Head Coach
Popovich is moving to a different role.
You’ve probably heard by now that Gregg Popovich is stepping down as the San Antonio Spurs’ head coach, a role he’s had since 1996.
He was a legendary coach who led the Spurs to 5 championship titles over three decades (1999, 2003, 2005, 2007, and 2014).
He was my favourite NBA coach because he promoted a positive team culture and was strategic.
He had strong beliefs about how basketball should be played and instilled them in all of his players. He wanted them to compete with teamwork, selflessness and accountability, as he believed this was a recipe for success.
Additionally, Popovich was a strategic decision maker.
For instance, he was the first coach to use “load management,” where he rested his star players throughout the regular season so that they were healthy for the playoffs. Resting his stars also allowed him to develop role players who didn’t get a lot of minutes.
He also popularized fouling a bad free-throw shooter to stop the clock and slow down the game.
For example, Game 5 of the first round in 2008.
The Phoenix Suns’ Shaquille O’Neal was a player who could dominate the post any time he wanted to. So, in this game, Popovich had his players foul Shaq on every possession to prevent the center, who is a poor free-throw shooter, from scoring.
Shaq made 9-of-20 free throws on the night and scored 13 points on 25 percent shooting, resulting in the Suns losing the elimination game 87-92.
As you can tell, Popovich irritated a lot of his opponents with his high IQ decision-making.
According to LeBron James and Steve Nash, two players who had to deal with the Spurs in the playoffs on multiple occasions, it’s because he uses military tactics.
“Like, was Pop a spy in the military? I’m serious,” Nash told LeBron on the Mind the Game podcast. “He spoke Russian. He came from the Air Force Academy. I think he was on his way to be an agent for the United States government. And you’re trying to win a basketball game against him. I always felt that there was a little bit of a disadvantage or a hill we were to climb just because of Pop.”
Final Thoughts
It’s going to suck not seeing Pop on the sidelines anymore.
However, he will still be part of the organization (as the President of Basketball Operations), and the culture he developed will remain strong in San Antonio with Mitch Johnson as the new head coach.
So don’t fret -Spurs basketball will live on!