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I know I'm way behind in this thread and that's it's not the appropriate place for a post like this, but the animosity towards Pop -- especially after a loss -- aggravates me to no end.If I were to grade Pop's coaching skills based on some of the Spurs fans reactions to Pop in the forum after some of the Spurs losses I'd have to give a big edge to Flip.
We get some of the same types of threads started in the Pistons forums. You'd think that with only 14 and 16 losses for our teams Coach-bashing wouldn't be so in vogue even after losses.
I guess it's that Championship teams fans have unrealistic expectations for our teams. We demand perfectection and nothing less will suffice!
There are a few factors that explain this tendency. The most apparent is the one you mention: unrealistic expectations. But this factor is much more pervasive than just thinking an excellent team should win most (if not all) of their games.
Historically, the basketball culture in San Antonio has always had high expectations which have frequently been let down. When DRob and Elliott joined the team, everyone in San Antonio thought a championship was just a few years away. One of the most physically-gifted, charismatic centers of all time combined with a stellar swingman was supposed to bring multiple rings. However, several forces combined to frustrate the Spurs for many years. While most of the blame should have been assigned to the people who actually played in the playoff games we lost to the Warriors, Suns, Rockets and eternally-reviled Jazz, many people felt bad about pointing a finger at such wonderful, likeable guys who just couldn't get it done. In San Antonio, DRob was almost above criticism because of his civic contributions and upstanding demeanor. As a result, Larry Brown, John Lucas, and Bob Hill took a lot of heat that was truly undeserved. Combined with the lingering animus over the firing of Bob Hill, Gregg Popovich has also had to endure this cultural tendency of criticizing the coach and apologizing the players.
While many other coaches on many other teams face this same fate, there are a few who haven't had to shoulder the load of their teams' failures. Jerry Sloan in Utah and Phil Jackson in LA are prime examples in the modern era, while Red Auerbach and Chuck Daly remained unsullied even on the rare occasions when their teams didn't live up to expectations.
Many fans in Detroit do the same thing to Larry Brown that Spurs fans have done to Gregg Popovich: languidly laudinng his successes while vehemently villifying his failures (sorry for the hokey alliterations). While not completely undeserved, I still feel embarrased when Spurs fans unnecessarily place too heavy a burden on the coach, blaming him when his players fail to perform. Now I know that there are plenty of people on this board who distributed blame freely to anyone they get upset at, but I still believe Pop gets the shaft more than he should.
Pop won the Coach of the Year award in 2003 while guiding the Spurs to 60 wins. Arguably, he should have won the award at least two or three times. He has a career winning percentage of .673 (second highest active, fifth highest all-time), and a career playoff record of 69-41 (.627, fifth highest all-time). He has led the Spurs to the league's best record three times in 10 years. He has won three NBA Championships in 9 full seasons of coaching. He is undoubtedly heading for the Hall of Fame, and when his career is over, he will be renowned as one of the greatest coaches of all-time. While none of this insulates him from criticism, it also should command respect from the people who have the most intimate knowledge of his career: Spurs fans. Everyone knows that David Robinson and Tim Duncan are gifts from God...San Antonio should realize that Gregg Popovich is too.
