Gregg Popovich's heritage: behind the beauty of the spurs coach

Each historic coach that the NBA has produced can be deposited in the Manila's file of “improbable”, but perhaps none corresponds perfectly to the profile only Gregg Popovich.

Popovich does not have the signature style, the look or even the singular period of domination like coaches who integrate perfectly into this category. His career was rolling up with others who were undoubtedly more decorated, more famous.

The modern coach who comes to mind in this fictitious argument, Phil Jackson, created a mystique around him, reinforced by his ability to make the most of Michael Jordan, Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant. The Jackson triangle's offensive caused imitators and its sufficient behavior out of the ground amused some and bored others. It was a hippie who did not correspond to what large -scale coaches resembled the 1990s.

(Rohrbach: Gregg Popovich by figures)

But winning 11 championships as a coach makes an unassailable, the same with the red cigar smoking Auerbach, who did not care to engage in the subterfuge of the Boston garden to torture adversaries in the 1960s, when the Celtics made the most winner that we have ever seen in a decade.

We should look more deep with Popovich, but the answer seems clear in his ambiguity. There is no signature style, no “showtime” in his name. The beauty of Popovich entering this pantheon is the adaptability of his approach.

Sitting in a staff with the rebel coach Don Nelson as an assistant to Golden State probably meant that Popovich had to stay on his guard in the early 1990s, but he did not bring these wild ways with him when taking over for Bob Hill in 1996. In these five championships, the Spurs won from 1999 to 2014, there is a joint only one. Tim Duncan as an anchor of the franchise, and Popovich as a master's brain and motivator.

Tim Duncan and Gregg Popovich anchored an NBA dynasty in San Antonio. (AP photo / rick scuteri, file)

(Associated Press)

Each title seems distinct in terms of the dominant style that the teams deployed-from Duncan and David Robinson early, in the championship of rhythm-space-production to which the Spurs loaded in 2014, when it was impossible to predict the way the Spurs would attack.

The NBA did not know what she wanted to be during the initial post-Jordania period. The way the rules have radically changed during the first decade of Millennium reflected it: it was the game of bump and grain, difficult to mark that made basketball in the early 2000s to kiss for anyone in addition to fans and hardcore purists. At the end of the decade, the style of seven seconds or less of the Phoenix Suns was copycat and co -opted by other teams, largely because it was more pleasant.

Although the Spurs did not have the staff to play in this way for 82 games, they could make a show in a series with The Suns, in the Western final of 2005. It was as entertaining a series as a five game game could be – Popovich made sure that his teams could play in perfect conditions as well as you scolding in the mud as you.

Popovich found a way not only to work in the system, but also to borrow it, to beat teams that have done things better and to win with Duncan as the impartial anchor. Popovich's gift was apparently the clarity of knowing exactly how to constitute a team and train one that could compete each year, even by confusion.

(Rohrbach: Three degrees from Gregg Popovich)

His acerbic nature, Curt with journalists at the same time on television (with the late Craig Sager) and elsewhere, denied his ability to be the ultimate learner, and therefore the ultimate leader. He and the perceived grandeur of his teams were questioned because they could not set up consecutive championships like the dynasties of the time, and there were some eliminations in strange playoffs, notably fell into a team of eighth head of Memphis Grizzlies in the first round in 2011.

But Popovich continued to refine on the edges, sometimes making major changes, and the Spurs continued to come and harden through the wild storms that the NBA launched with each deductible, to each champion.

Perhaps the third and fourth titles that the Spurs won, in 2005 and 2007, are the most similar. Ironically, these championships seemed to cement the Spurs as a signature historic NBA franchise as opposed to that which won during a period when future flag carriers were in incubators.

Popovich had started to loosen the reins a little, allowing Tony Parker and Manu Ginóbili more freedom to explore while nourishing Duncan in the post. And then later, letting everyone who listened to a young calm named Kawhi Leonard would be able to wear the franchise after the end of Duncan's days. This has shown a dedication to treating and divorcing a certain amount of ego, because even the best coaches are married to their styles and ideologies, especially when there are several rings in their name.

Popovich's greatest triumph was undoubtedly following the disaster. The Spurs were less than 30 seconds to win a fifth title in Miami against LeBron James – who missed a unanimous MVP by a vote in 2013 – before everything could be wrong turned in match 6.

Popovich withdrew Duncan from the game on the final possession of Miami in regulation, and the lack of size of the Spurs led Chris Bosh to hang an offensive rebound and a triple of Ray Allen for one of the most historic sequences in the history of the League. Miami won this match and home match 7 to finish the return. The failure has eaten away Popovich and the Spurs for the next full season, and everyone does not recover from Heartbreak.

Especially a team without supernova at its peak.

But Popovich skillfully succeeded in keeping 10 hungry and satisfied players, playing no one over 29 minutes per night. Leonard was not yet in full bloom, while Duncan approached the end. Spurs have used a heavy pass-and-cut offense, focusing on the movement and 3-point shooting that you see today-leading the league in a percentage of 3 points and in assists.

However, however, the Spurs won 62 NBA games, beaten the MVP Kevin during and the Thunder of Oklahoma City in six games before another force against James and The Heat.

If 2013 was a classic, 2014 was not a competition. Very rarely, a team is so concentrated and resolved but still has mental endurance to finish the mission – demolish the heat in five games with a record margin. This credit, largely, goes to Popovich – both in style and motivation. In a way, it is the most unexpected of his five titles, in another, he is the most emblematic of his style, even if the Spurs would not have triumphed.

It was difficult to return to this stage after Leonard's divorce in 2018 – one of the few imperfections on the CV of Popovich. What happened was largely found in a shroud of mystery and innuendo, because the loyalty of his former players towards him is Dean Smith-Esque.

It is also synonymous with Spurs as Smith with northern Caroline basketball, even if the two had little enviable tasks. Smith, because the late coach resigned in 1997 and Popovich, because the NBA is such a player league.

But just as Carolina's system has produced many pros and still remains by so many Smith principles, the Spurs will probably follow the basics of Popovich well after his departure.

And one of these principles is to remain ready and to remain flexible. Building a coherent winner in a market like San Antonio is not easy. Before Robinson appeared in 1989, the greatest player in the franchise was George Gervin – and it would take a long way before identifying the next best.

They were not the Cloebegone Los Angeles Clippers, but they were far from the royalty of the NBA. We consider the Spurs as one of the golden franchises of a sterling era of the league, but there are only a few built from zero which have no roots of the first days of the league.

Popovich posed Brick by Brick, and although he had the chance to find a frankness willing to kiss his zigging while the world Zagge was, they had the chance to have it – a stable leader who had only basic principles to respect.

And these principles will guide the franchise as it will go to the next phase of its own leadership.

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