austinfan
06-29-2005, 11:22 AM
Hadn't seen this article yet on spurstalk. Apologies if it's already been posted:
Spurs, Patriots Have Formed a Winning Alliance
David Aldridge, Philadelphia Inquirer
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/sports/football/11988763.htm
SAN ANTONIO, Texas - One of the most interesting of alliances is taking place between two championship organizations, each of which has captured three world championships in a viciously competitive sport and stands atop its respective league.
Each is run by a no-nonsense coach with a military background who is much more complex than the martinet image he projects.
Each has a second-in-command of understated brilliance, more than happy to stay in the shadows and defer to the public leader while creating an organization with a single voice and philosophy that centers on a "culture" of shared sacrifice.
Each has a superstar as selfless as he is talented who is adored by his teammates, not resented.
The parallels between the San Antonio Spurs and New England Patriots are numerous and striking. And each is intimately aware of it.
Over the last couple of years, the management teams of the Spurs and Patriots have grown close. Though they've never actually met, their top executives - Spurs general manager R.C. Buford and Patriots vice president of player personnel Scott Pioli - are in constant contact with one another via e-mail and telephone, sharing ideas and philosophies about building and maintaining winning franchises.
"I try to read everything I can about them and respect the hell out of the way they've done things," Buford said of the Pats during the NBA Finals.
The genesis of the relationship is found with a third organization, the Cleveland Indians. That team's general manager, Mark Shapiro, is a close friend of both Pioli - whom he met when Pioli was with Bill Belichick and the Cleveland Browns in the mid-1990s - and Danny Ferry.
Shapiro has known Ferry since the two met as teenagers in the Baltimore area while Ferry's father, Bob Ferry, was the general manager of the Washington Bullets.
When Danny Ferry, now the Spurs' director of basketball operations, played in Cleveland with the Cavaliers, he and Shapiro grew closer.
"There's been a lot of sharing between R.C., Mark Shapiro, myself and [Spurs director of player personnel] Sam Presti," Pioli said in a telephone interview. "We haven't had a chance to get the coaches and managers together, but the rest of us communicate at different points in time. There definitely has been some crossover in philosophical concepts of team building."
"There are definitely transferables in identifying, selecting talent and building a team," Shapiro said by telephone. "But there are very different conditions within collective-bargaining agreements, revenue situations, that definitely influence the carrying out of that... . The exchange is only beneficial."
If there is a template that the organizations each share about building a winning organization, it's this: A player's ultimate contribution to a team has much more to do with his character than his skill set.
"It's what kind of guy he is," Ferry said. "It's not just the guy throws 90 m.p.h. What's his makeup? And how can we build? When I was playing, [seeing] my dad doing it, meeting someone like Mark and being in the Spurs' organization, made me want to be in management."
Said Pioli: "We're not just collecting talent. There's a lot of things that they look for in people in terms of intangibles that are the same things we look for. They look for people who care about winning. A lot of people say they care about winning. Not everyone does."
Both Buford and Pioli share a close, longtime relationship with their respective coaches, Gregg Popovich and Belichick. They know what kind of players will mesh with their coaches and which ones they should stay away from.
Pioli knows that guys who don't love football won't last long with Belichick, who learned the game at the knee of his father, Steve, a 33-year coach at the U.S. Naval Academy. Popovich, the U.S. Air Force graduate, remained patient with Buford while he remade the Spurs' first championship team around Tim Duncan, even as the Spurs lost some heartbreaking playoff series to the Lakers.
"Pop allowed that to happen," Buford said. "Most coaches, they'd say, 'We have to do this now. I need to know what my team's going to be the next three or four years.' He never did that. He accepted the plan and allowed it to take place."
Shapiro went to Detroit during the Finals to see Ferry and the Spurs play their pivotal Game 5 against the Pistons. Pioli was returning from a family outing in Arizona and wasn't able to make it but watched on television. Within minutes of Robert Horry's game-winning and series-turning three-pointer, Pioli had fired off a congratulatory e-mail to Buford.
"My wife couldn't care less about the NBA," Pioli said. "But she sat up and watched Game 5 with me. She got very frustrated when the game went into overtime. But she gets it now."
The Spurs and Patriots are also keenly aware of their good fortune. Duncan should be playing for the Celtics, adding to their collection of championship banners. But for the luck of a Ping-Pong ball, the Spurs could be playing in Vegas right now. And the Patriots certainly didn't know what they were getting when they took Tom Brady with the 199th pick of the 2000 draft.
But they've maximized their teams around those superstars. And they aren't too proud or satisfied not to take advice from another winner.
"We both think we can learn from each other," Buford said.
Spurs, Patriots Have Formed a Winning Alliance
David Aldridge, Philadelphia Inquirer
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/sports/football/11988763.htm
SAN ANTONIO, Texas - One of the most interesting of alliances is taking place between two championship organizations, each of which has captured three world championships in a viciously competitive sport and stands atop its respective league.
Each is run by a no-nonsense coach with a military background who is much more complex than the martinet image he projects.
Each has a second-in-command of understated brilliance, more than happy to stay in the shadows and defer to the public leader while creating an organization with a single voice and philosophy that centers on a "culture" of shared sacrifice.
Each has a superstar as selfless as he is talented who is adored by his teammates, not resented.
The parallels between the San Antonio Spurs and New England Patriots are numerous and striking. And each is intimately aware of it.
Over the last couple of years, the management teams of the Spurs and Patriots have grown close. Though they've never actually met, their top executives - Spurs general manager R.C. Buford and Patriots vice president of player personnel Scott Pioli - are in constant contact with one another via e-mail and telephone, sharing ideas and philosophies about building and maintaining winning franchises.
"I try to read everything I can about them and respect the hell out of the way they've done things," Buford said of the Pats during the NBA Finals.
The genesis of the relationship is found with a third organization, the Cleveland Indians. That team's general manager, Mark Shapiro, is a close friend of both Pioli - whom he met when Pioli was with Bill Belichick and the Cleveland Browns in the mid-1990s - and Danny Ferry.
Shapiro has known Ferry since the two met as teenagers in the Baltimore area while Ferry's father, Bob Ferry, was the general manager of the Washington Bullets.
When Danny Ferry, now the Spurs' director of basketball operations, played in Cleveland with the Cavaliers, he and Shapiro grew closer.
"There's been a lot of sharing between R.C., Mark Shapiro, myself and [Spurs director of player personnel] Sam Presti," Pioli said in a telephone interview. "We haven't had a chance to get the coaches and managers together, but the rest of us communicate at different points in time. There definitely has been some crossover in philosophical concepts of team building."
"There are definitely transferables in identifying, selecting talent and building a team," Shapiro said by telephone. "But there are very different conditions within collective-bargaining agreements, revenue situations, that definitely influence the carrying out of that... . The exchange is only beneficial."
If there is a template that the organizations each share about building a winning organization, it's this: A player's ultimate contribution to a team has much more to do with his character than his skill set.
"It's what kind of guy he is," Ferry said. "It's not just the guy throws 90 m.p.h. What's his makeup? And how can we build? When I was playing, [seeing] my dad doing it, meeting someone like Mark and being in the Spurs' organization, made me want to be in management."
Said Pioli: "We're not just collecting talent. There's a lot of things that they look for in people in terms of intangibles that are the same things we look for. They look for people who care about winning. A lot of people say they care about winning. Not everyone does."
Both Buford and Pioli share a close, longtime relationship with their respective coaches, Gregg Popovich and Belichick. They know what kind of players will mesh with their coaches and which ones they should stay away from.
Pioli knows that guys who don't love football won't last long with Belichick, who learned the game at the knee of his father, Steve, a 33-year coach at the U.S. Naval Academy. Popovich, the U.S. Air Force graduate, remained patient with Buford while he remade the Spurs' first championship team around Tim Duncan, even as the Spurs lost some heartbreaking playoff series to the Lakers.
"Pop allowed that to happen," Buford said. "Most coaches, they'd say, 'We have to do this now. I need to know what my team's going to be the next three or four years.' He never did that. He accepted the plan and allowed it to take place."
Shapiro went to Detroit during the Finals to see Ferry and the Spurs play their pivotal Game 5 against the Pistons. Pioli was returning from a family outing in Arizona and wasn't able to make it but watched on television. Within minutes of Robert Horry's game-winning and series-turning three-pointer, Pioli had fired off a congratulatory e-mail to Buford.
"My wife couldn't care less about the NBA," Pioli said. "But she sat up and watched Game 5 with me. She got very frustrated when the game went into overtime. But she gets it now."
The Spurs and Patriots are also keenly aware of their good fortune. Duncan should be playing for the Celtics, adding to their collection of championship banners. But for the luck of a Ping-Pong ball, the Spurs could be playing in Vegas right now. And the Patriots certainly didn't know what they were getting when they took Tom Brady with the 199th pick of the 2000 draft.
But they've maximized their teams around those superstars. And they aren't too proud or satisfied not to take advice from another winner.
"We both think we can learn from each other," Buford said.