*ESPN FIRST TAKE: Pop is the BEST COACH of all time?

[DMC]

So he is the GOAT???

He is, because he's still doing it while Phil is jerking himself off in an office in NY wondering how he's going to keep Carmelo Anthony. Pop is a great coach as well, way up there probably top 3 or so, but he's a disciple of Larry Brown and Larry is a disciple of Dean Smith. Dean never coached the pros and he'd have to contend with Wooden.

[hitmantb]

I will say this, if Phil Jackson can lead (let's face it, Fisher is just a puppet for Jackson) the Knicks to a championship within 4 years. Regardless of how he does it (player development, poaching LeBron, you name it), I will rank him ahead of Pop.

You can not argue with the results and Popovich style works well in small town with a super coach-able players and owner/GM who back him up 120%. I can't see Pop succeeding with poisonous players like Melo who will tank games intentionally to push Pop out of town. I can't wait to see Phil's next moves.

[DMX7]

Phil Jackson is a better coach. Pop is very high, but not the best.

[baseline bum]

Yeah but they had no bench, while the spurs had one with Horry and Barry. Detroit' bench was McDyess and? Lindsey Hunter?

Crazy in 04 how deep they were with Mike James, Mehmet Okur, Corliss Williamson, Lindsey Hunter, and Elden Campbell. The teams were only evenly matched because Duncan's ankles were completely ed and Ginobili got hurt in Game 3. A healthy 2005 Spurs beat them in 5 and beat the 2004 Pistons in 7.

[DMC]

I will say this, if Phil Jackson can lead (let's face it, Fisher is just a puppet for Jackson) the Knicks to a championship within 4 years. Regardless of how he does it (player development, poaching LeBron, you name it), I will rank him ahead of Pop.

You can not argue with the results and Popovich style works well in small town with a super coach-able players and owner/GM who back him up 120%. I can't see Pop succeeding with poisonous players like Melo who will tank games intentionally to push Pop out of town. I can't wait to see Phil's next moves.

Phil isn't a coach. Puppet or not, you cannot rank a guy ahead of another guy as a better coach because of what he does as a non-coach type employee. Otherwise we have to start thinking about other non-coach meddlers who were successful... and list them in the coaching ranks.

[Purch]

I will say this, if Phil Jackson can lead (let's face it, Fisher is just a puppet for Jackson) the Knicks to a championship within 4 years. Regardless of how he does it (player development, poaching LeBron, you name it), I will rank him ahead of Pop.

You can not argue with the results and Popovich style works well in small town with a super coach-able players and owner/GM who back him up 120%. I can't see Pop succeeding with poisonous players like Melo who will tank games intentionally to push Pop out of town. I can't wait to see Phil's next moves.

Thats like ranking Riley higher than Pop, due to Spo's achievements.It doesn't make sense to move people up as coaches, when they're not actually coaching the team anymore.

[Spursfanfromafar]

The best thing about Popovich is his emphasis on player development and working with so many different systems over his head coaching career. No other coach of that calibre managed to make basketball evolve.

The First Take Trolls do not whisper a word about Popovich's greatest achievement as a "coach".

[PublicOption]

Pop is the BEST COACH of all time?

Pop is the BEST COACH of all time.

[TampaDude]

Crazy in 04 how deep they were with Mike James, Mehmet Okur, Corliss Williamson, Lindsey Hunter, and Elden Campbell. The teams were only evenly matched because Duncan's ankles were completely ed and Ginobili got hurt in Game 3. A healthy 2005 Spurs beat them in 5 and beat the 2004 Pistons in 7.

0.4

Pistons raped the Lakers in 5 in 2004 (almost a sweep), so maybe, maybe not.

[dg7md]

Any suckers want to do some damage control?

[dunkman]

Phil is the best after Red, he's the master of offense AND defense. Larry Brown is slightly better in defense, but average offensive coach. Pop is slightly better defensive coach then Phil, but until '07 Phil was much better running the offense. Pop is clearly better then Larry and Phil developing talent. At this point, Pop may be better then Phil, however Phil seldom made mistakes - while Pop coached the 0.4, the AND 1 and the 6, costing 2 or 3 'ships.

[T Park]

Crazy in 04 how deep they were with Mike James, Mehmet Okur, Corliss Williamson, Lindsey Hunter, and Elden Campbell. The teams were only evenly matched because Duncan's ankles were completely ed and Ginobili got hurt in Game 3. A healthy 2005 Spurs beat them in 5 and beat the 2004 Pistons in 7.

Yeah people always convincingly forget that Duncan was on 2 bad badly sprained ankles and still put those numbers up.
Watched game 7 the other day, 100% forgot that elden Campbell was on that team. Blew me away.

[moisaenz]

Phil is just a highly overrated motivational speaker.

[therealtruth]

Phil is the best after Red, he's the master of offense AND defense. Larry Brown is slightly better in defense, but average offensive coach. Pop is slightly better defensive coach then Phil, but until '07 Phil was much better running the offense. Pop is clearly better then Larry and Phil developing talent. At this point, Pop may be better then Phil, however Phil seldom made mistakes - while Pop coached the 0.4, the AND 1 and the 6, costing 2 or 3 'ships.

PJ seldom made mistakes. His belief was you have to create you own luck. That makes it harder for you to be at the mercy of 0.4, the foul, and game 6. I think this was the first year I really saw Pop coach with a killer instinct. He was going for the jugula and was not going to let luck decide things.

[florige]

Phil is the best after Red, he's the master of offense AND defense. Larry Brown is slightly better in defense, but average offensive coach. Pop is slightly better defensive coach then Phil, but until '07 Phil was much better running the offense. Pop is clearly better then Larry and Phil developing talent. At this point, Pop may be better then Phil, however Phil seldom made mistakes - while Pop coached the 0.4, the AND 1 and the 6, costing 2 or 3 'ships.

Yeah thats pretty easy not to do when you have arguebly 2/3 of the best players of all-time on the teams he walked in to. Once a team figures out his system with the players he has he usually bolts. He is a motivational speaker who talks nice in front of the camera

[florige]

PJ seldom made mistakes. His belief was you have to create you own luck. That makes it harder for you to be at the mercy of 0.4, the foul, and game 6. I think this was the first year I really saw Pop coach with a killer instinct. He was going for the jugula and was not going to let luck decide things.

I noticed that too with this particular team. We almost always would let teams back in no matter how big the lead was. Idk was that a system on how Pop coached the players, did he change game plans, whatever it was like you said this season in particular he made sure to go for the jugular more times than none. I remember during the insane win streak we had if I remember correctly all of mostly all of those games were straight massacre's.

[BatManu20]

Phil Jackson is a better coach. Pop is very high, but not the best.

Phil is certainly top 2, but Pop has done more with far less. You can make that case for him against any coach in NBA history. And Phil Jackson also got swept in the 2nd round of the playoffs in 2011 with a healthy Kobe, Bynum, and Gasol squad which ended his coaching career. That would never happen to a Pop coached team. IMO he's the superior coach.

[DMX7]

Phil is certainly top 2, but Pop has done more with far less. You can make that case for him against any coach in NBA history. And Phil Jackson also got swept in the 2nd round of the playoffs in 2011 with a healthy Kobe, Bynum, and Gasol squad which ended his coaching career. That would never happen to a Pop coached team. IMO he's the superior coach.

He hasn't "done more" because Phil has 11 championships and Pop has 5, but he obviously didn't have Jordan, Pipen, Shaq & Kobe in their prime.

[dunkman]

Yeah thats pretty easy not to do when you have arguebly 2/3 of the best players of all-time on the teams he walked in to. Once a team figures out his system with the players he has he usually bolts. He is a motivational speaker who talks nice in front of the camera

Between MJ, Pippen, Shaq, Kobe and Gasol - only Shaq won 1 'ship without Phil and it was riding the bench in the finals. There is no such thing as motivational speaker that wins 11 championships.

[florige]

Between MJ, Pippen, Shaq, Kobe and Gasol - only Shaq won 1 'ship without Phil and it was riding the bench in the finals. There is no such thing as motivational speaker that wins 11 championships.

Sorry not convinced. When PJ goes to a team with a older roster, or builds a team from the ground up and wins multiple championships then maybe I will re-consider. I am pretty sure if the Knicks had Carmelo along side with Derrick Rose and Kevin Durant PJ would be coaching them not sitting up in the front office.

[J.T.]

If the Spurs were in L.A. or New York and had won 3 les in 5 years like they did in the mid-2000s, does Pop still have a job after not ringing between 2008-2011, with the team clearly falling into the 2nd tier of NBA elite and going out as a 1 seed vs an 8 seed in 2011? Probably not. Only in San Antonio.

[Mel_13]

Quick note on Pop: I think it’s fascinating that the four greatest NBA coaches of all time — Red Auerbach, Phil Jackson, Pat Riley and Pop — are so clearly the four greatest coaches of all time. Throw away the first 10 NBA seasons since it barely looked like basketball. (And it wasn’t just the styles. If you wanted to watch black players, you had to go see the Harlem Globetrotters.) Really, the league we’re watching now started when Bill Russell showed up in 1956. Of those 58 seasons since 1956-57, Auerbach (nine rings), Jackson (11), Riley (five) and Popovich (five) have won more than 50 percent of the les (30 combined). Since no other NBA coach has won even THREE les, really, there’s no Mount Rushmore argument to be had.

http://grantland.com/features/24-lin...he-nba-finals/

[mudyez]

Just curious. Since Pop was named COY again, is there any footage of him getting the trophy?

[Mel_13]

Just curious. Since Pop was named COY again, is there any footage of him getting the trophy?

http://www.nba.com/spurs/news/140422...ch_of_the_year

[mudyez]

http://www.nba.com/spurs/news/140422...ch_of_the_year

so there was no ceremony prior to a playoff game?