if success came earlier for Pop..

[last_train]

would he be the best coach ever in world basketball?

or is he already the best?

[last_train]

well anybody doesn't think about that?

then i give some examples from europe as i live in turkiye

panathinaikos (greece) coach zeljko obradovic, who has 5 european titles with 4 different teams (partizan belgrade, joventut badalona, real madrid and panathinaikos) , is just 45 years old.
in our country efes pilsen basketball club won last year's title and this was their 4th consecutive title. their coach oktay mahmuti is at the age of 38 now.
for example, one can say that when Pop was at small Pomona College, Riley was guiding Lakers to championships. Which one is more important; what you achieved despite the young age or the achievements regardless of the age?

[boutons_]

Pop has built the most respected organization in the NBA over the last 10 years.

But Pop has been very clear that his success is built upon Tim Duncan, and that Pop may not coach after Tim retires. Tim Duncan's success is entwined with Pop's organization.

Phil Jackson has had great success with the best player talent, but this year he is trying to get results with only one great talent.

The "best coach ever" would have to have success with several completely different teams, isolating his coaching talent as being separate from player talent. This probably won't happen with Pop.

[NCaliSpurs]

Earlier for Pop? He won a championship in like his third year of being a head coach. That is about as early as it comes.

[Obstructed_View]

Pop's a great guy, and a good coach. Coaches make the least amount of difference in the NBA than any other place IMHO. Hall of famers make a coach look good.

[last_train]

to me, the most impressive thing pop has achieved is adapting foreign players to the team and teach them to play the right basketball and how to succeed in nba.
with an all-foreign backcourt in parker and ginobili, pop's team has always been considered among the top candidates for the title before the season.
and look at fabricio oberto. although he is still one of the key members of the argentina national team, he never became the choice of a top euroleague team such as maccabi tel aviv, cska moscow or fc barcelona who invested a lot of money to capture the euroleague trophy but he managed to fit in spurs' system and is taking considerable minutes.
and 2 days ago, there was that famous game 5 in 2004 between spurs and lakers and during a short period ginobili was at pg, defending payton, hedo was on kobe and rasho on shaq. with those players, if that miracle shot had gone out, spurs would probably eliminate that lakers team having 4 future hall of fame players. sometimes it's hard to believe.