lefty
05-10-2013, 03:38 PM
Popovich caught, just as Karl was beforehttp://ww4.hdnux.com/photos/21/42/66/4599195/9/premium_article_headline.jpgSan Antonio Spurs' Tim Duncan talks with San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich during first half action of Game 2 in the NBA Western Conference semifinals against the Golden State Warriors Wednesday May 8, 2013 at the AT&T Center.
By Buck Harvey (http://www.expressnews.com/author/buck-harvey)
May 9, 2013
A year ago Gregg Popovich won his second coach of the year award, and he treated the trophy as if he needed hand sanitizer after touching it. David Robinson handed it to him at midcourt, with Tim Duncan standing on the other side, and Popovich immediately tried to slip it to one of his assistants.
They comically turned their backs, forcing him to walk with the terrible burden for a few steps, before someone stepped in to save him.
Popovich hated the attention, especially right before a playoff game against Utah. But maybe he was trying to avoid the virus, too.
Coaches seem to catch it when they are on the top.
It's been the trend. After Popovich won his first coach-of-the-year award in 2003, the next six winners eventually left their teams.
Four of them – Avery Johnson, Sam Mitchell, Byron Scott and Mike Brown – were fired. Johnson, Scott and Brown have all been fired a second time since.
This year it was George Karl's turn to catch the virus. He received his first coach of the year award Wednesday, but he didn't get his trophy at midcourt. Golden State made sure of that.
He won 57 games with an unconventional roster. But then he lost a key component, Danilo Gallinari, and found himself against the same emerging Golden State roster the Spurs struggle with now. The Nuggets took the opener with some dramatics, as the Spurs did, and lost the series in six games.
Karl said he was "humbled" by the award Wednesday. But for him, after being eliminated in the first round for the fourth straight season, it was if the honor highlighted what he hasn't done.
Popovich isn't that, exactly. The virus should have left him alone this season. He finished fourth in the voting.
Besides, he's the exception who has won the trophy and succeeded. He has won four titles with the kind of continuity that is rare in sports, and the streak that the Warriors broke Wednesday told of that. When they last beat the Spurs in San Antonio, in February of 1997, Popovich was a first-year coach hoping to see a second year.
Now he's become the standard. After Sir Alex Ferguson resigned Wednesday after 26 seasons with Manchester United, Popovich isn't just the dean of the NBA. He might be the dean of the globe.
But, again, that's the way of the virus. It attacks the most celebrated, as if to state no one is immune to the usual second guesses.
Maybe Popovich has one in mind today. This goes back to the spring of 2011, when a prospect named Klay Thompson came to San Antonio to meet the Spurs.
That trip suggested something was going on. Thompson was considered a lottery pick, and the Spurs were scheduled to draft near the bottom of the first round.
So Thompson met with the Spurs staff at dinner, and he remembers Popovich being different than he thought he would be. Popovich was funny, and Thompson said this week, "He always seems so serious on the sideline."
On Wednesday, when the Warriors again took double-digit leads, Popovich again seemed serious.
The Spurs have come to rely on Popovich's antenna at these times. He's exceptional at picking up on who someone is. But he didn't that night. Popovich didn't connect with Thompson, and, as a result, the Spurs didn't include him on their draft list.
In the end, it didn't matter. The Spurs couldn't trade up any higher than 15th, and Thompson went 11th. The player the Spurs ended up with, Kawhi Leonard, has been a find.
Still, Thompson was a huge part of what happened Wednesday. Thompson had 17 points in the second quarter alone, when the Spurs as a team had only 20, and his 29 points in the first half was a Spurs playoff record for an opponent.
And when the Spurs tried to rally as they did Monday? This time Thompson, the Warriors' best defender, wasn't in foul trouble.
Afterward, Popovich said Thompson was "fantastic." And as he complimented the Warriors, he also pointed at his own team.
"I think they were the more aggressive, physical team for more of the game then were just like Game 1," he said of the Warriors. "That's the most important thing for us."
Maybe that's it. Or, maybe Golden State is a young team better than its record, and the opening win was nothing more than a fluke.
Manu Ginobili saw it that way Wednesday. "We didn't deserve Game 1, either," he said.
For Popovich, this is not unlike the Memphis series two years ago. Then, too, he didn't have an answer for a burly eighth seed.
This time he's being beaten by a speedy sixth seed. Popovich is caught without an answer, with his veterans as unsure, with the perception that a coach with his accolades shouldn't lose this way. As it was with Karl.
[email protected]
Twitter: Buck_SA
By Buck Harvey (http://www.expressnews.com/author/buck-harvey)
May 9, 2013
A year ago Gregg Popovich won his second coach of the year award, and he treated the trophy as if he needed hand sanitizer after touching it. David Robinson handed it to him at midcourt, with Tim Duncan standing on the other side, and Popovich immediately tried to slip it to one of his assistants.
They comically turned their backs, forcing him to walk with the terrible burden for a few steps, before someone stepped in to save him.
Popovich hated the attention, especially right before a playoff game against Utah. But maybe he was trying to avoid the virus, too.
Coaches seem to catch it when they are on the top.
It's been the trend. After Popovich won his first coach-of-the-year award in 2003, the next six winners eventually left their teams.
Four of them – Avery Johnson, Sam Mitchell, Byron Scott and Mike Brown – were fired. Johnson, Scott and Brown have all been fired a second time since.
This year it was George Karl's turn to catch the virus. He received his first coach of the year award Wednesday, but he didn't get his trophy at midcourt. Golden State made sure of that.
He won 57 games with an unconventional roster. But then he lost a key component, Danilo Gallinari, and found himself against the same emerging Golden State roster the Spurs struggle with now. The Nuggets took the opener with some dramatics, as the Spurs did, and lost the series in six games.
Karl said he was "humbled" by the award Wednesday. But for him, after being eliminated in the first round for the fourth straight season, it was if the honor highlighted what he hasn't done.
Popovich isn't that, exactly. The virus should have left him alone this season. He finished fourth in the voting.
Besides, he's the exception who has won the trophy and succeeded. He has won four titles with the kind of continuity that is rare in sports, and the streak that the Warriors broke Wednesday told of that. When they last beat the Spurs in San Antonio, in February of 1997, Popovich was a first-year coach hoping to see a second year.
Now he's become the standard. After Sir Alex Ferguson resigned Wednesday after 26 seasons with Manchester United, Popovich isn't just the dean of the NBA. He might be the dean of the globe.
But, again, that's the way of the virus. It attacks the most celebrated, as if to state no one is immune to the usual second guesses.
Maybe Popovich has one in mind today. This goes back to the spring of 2011, when a prospect named Klay Thompson came to San Antonio to meet the Spurs.
That trip suggested something was going on. Thompson was considered a lottery pick, and the Spurs were scheduled to draft near the bottom of the first round.
So Thompson met with the Spurs staff at dinner, and he remembers Popovich being different than he thought he would be. Popovich was funny, and Thompson said this week, "He always seems so serious on the sideline."
On Wednesday, when the Warriors again took double-digit leads, Popovich again seemed serious.
The Spurs have come to rely on Popovich's antenna at these times. He's exceptional at picking up on who someone is. But he didn't that night. Popovich didn't connect with Thompson, and, as a result, the Spurs didn't include him on their draft list.
In the end, it didn't matter. The Spurs couldn't trade up any higher than 15th, and Thompson went 11th. The player the Spurs ended up with, Kawhi Leonard, has been a find.
Still, Thompson was a huge part of what happened Wednesday. Thompson had 17 points in the second quarter alone, when the Spurs as a team had only 20, and his 29 points in the first half was a Spurs playoff record for an opponent.
And when the Spurs tried to rally as they did Monday? This time Thompson, the Warriors' best defender, wasn't in foul trouble.
Afterward, Popovich said Thompson was "fantastic." And as he complimented the Warriors, he also pointed at his own team.
"I think they were the more aggressive, physical team for more of the game then were just like Game 1," he said of the Warriors. "That's the most important thing for us."
Maybe that's it. Or, maybe Golden State is a young team better than its record, and the opening win was nothing more than a fluke.
Manu Ginobili saw it that way Wednesday. "We didn't deserve Game 1, either," he said.
For Popovich, this is not unlike the Memphis series two years ago. Then, too, he didn't have an answer for a burly eighth seed.
This time he's being beaten by a speedy sixth seed. Popovich is caught without an answer, with his veterans as unsure, with the perception that a coach with his accolades shouldn't lose this way. As it was with Karl.
[email protected]
Twitter: Buck_SA