The New York Times
June 12, 2005
San Antonio's Popovich Happy to Speak Fluent Basketball
By LIZ ROBBINS
SAN ANTONIO, June 11 - Were it not for Diyarbakir, and the eager captain named Gregg Popovich who served on the military base there in southern Turkey during the early 1970's, the Spurs might never have crossed the international dateline to get to the N.B.A. finals today.
Popovich, who majored in Soviet studies at the Air Force Academy, enjoyed traveling as much as he loved basketball. So when a general told him early in his tour to leave his counterintelligence work and go TDY- on temporary duty for the United States Armed Forces basketball team in Eastern Europe - Popovich found a permanent calling.
He took his curiosity and appreciation for foreign cultures with him as currency, and it has paid dividends now with the Spurs.
In games against the Belov brothers of the Soviet Union before the fateful 1972 Olympics, and against countless others from Estonia, Latvia, Yugoslavia - names he no longer remembers - Popovich developed his worldview that helped bring memorable names to the N.B.A.
Manu Ginóbili. Tony Parker.
The Spurs have the most diverse roster in a league increasingly populated by international players: Popovich's team flies the flags of Argentina, France, Slovenia, New Zealand, the United States Virgin Islands and the United States.
"The opportunities I got in the military to travel with basketball really made me understand how much basketball is played around the world, how many good players there are," Popovich said Friday after the Spurs had taken a 1-0 lead over the Pistons in the best-of-seven-game N.B.A. finals.
"I always thought what a great way to combine my own personal enjoyment with professional responsibilities. So we made a commitment when we came that we were going to hit the streets out there in the other countries and we were going to find bodies."
Sixteen years after first joining the Spurs as an assistant coach under Larry Brown, now the Pistons' coach, Popovich, 56, enters Sunday's Game 2 three victories from winning his third N.B.A. le in seven seasons.
The man who could have been a spy has instead stealthily commanded the fourth best winning percentage of any coach in N.B.A. history (.661).
Popovich will be the first to say that having No. 1 picks - David Robinson and Tim Duncan - helped him earn that distinction.
"The only credit coaches deserve is if they've got good cir stances; they get credit if they don't screw it up," he said. "I'll admit that I don't think I screwed it up."
But R. C. Buford, the Spurs' general manager, who trained under Popovich, credits his coach's bonds with his players and his unwavering confidence for propelling the Spurs' success.
"Pop's a different renaissance man," Buford said. "He doesn't really care whether people know about him. He doesn't feel comfortable when people know about him. His diversity, of personality and experience, is very, very strong."
Popovich's demanding yet caring relationship with his players holds the team together, Buford said. Popovich flew to the island of St. Croix to get to know Duncan before the Spurs drafted him in 1997. He attended Parker's arbitration trial with his French basketball team in 2001 and stayed with Parker in London as the Sept. 11 attacks prevented Parker from flying immediately.
Back in San Antonio, Popovich was relentless, with Parker, then a 19-year-old rookie point guard, instilling him with military toughness on the court, yet learning how to give him freedom.
"We came a long way our first two years," Parker said. "He was always screaming at me, like he was hard to take sometimes, getting all red and getting crazy. Now, we've got a great relationship and we understand each other. He's pretty flexible and you have to give him credit for that because he adapts to my style of playing and Manu's style."
The veteran forward Robert Horry added: "Pop just wants the best out of you. He's going to be on you hard, I mean really hard, so if you have the mental toughness to take that, you're going to develop well as a player."
Over the past two years, Parker and Ginóbili have learned to read Popovich and his sarcasm. Witness the first quarter of Game 1 when the Spurs fell behind, 17-4, and Popovich had to call two timeouts.
"I asked them if it wasn't too much trouble, if I wasn't being too pushy, if they could execute what we were trying to do and, if it didn't make them too angry, if they also wanted to play some defense on the other end, that would be great," Popovich said after the game.
Ginóbili got the point. "You get worried because there's a vein here that just gets so big, you think it's going to explode," he said. "He's a smart coach. He knows how to get the best from his team. He's got that temperament that he gets very upset, and he's not afraid to tell anything to anybody. He doesn't care if it's Tim Duncan or the player that is on the I.R.
"So everybody feels the same situation. I think it's really good for the spirit of the team."
Players call Popovich's invective-laced tirades "going Serbian." When Hedo Turkoglu, of Turkey, was on the team with the team's current center, Rasho Nesterovic from Slovenia, Popovich would actually converse in broken Serbian with them.
"That's something that those guys don't get a lot of places," Buford said. "It just adds to the relationship. It doesn't cement it, but it sure puts it in a different perspective. Those guys know he is making an attempt to be one of them."
Despite his time in Eastern Europe, Popovich insists he speaks only one language, English, fluently. He frequently quizzes his players on national politics, though his intellectual curiosity is sometimes lost in translation.
In trying to loosen the mood before Game 1, Popovich talked about the national spelling bee. "I wanted to know if anybody knew the word that won, it was appoggiatura," he said.
But Popovich had to explain the contest three times. "Manu was like, 'Spelling bees? Where are the bees?' " Popovich said.
Popovich has always reveled in this communicative challenge. "Most people just didn't believe it, they didn't want foreign kids, thinking they didn't speak English and it's going to be a pain," he said.
In 1988 Popovich persuaded Brown and the Spurs' general manager, Bob Bass, to send him to Cologne, Germany, to scout players at the Euroleague championships. There, Popovich established a relationship with his first prospect: Zarko Paspalj. (Paspalj, a 6-foot-9 forward from Yugoslavia, lasted one season with the Spurs. Brown disliked his defense and poor conditioning.)
During those championships, Popovich recalled seeing only one other N.B.A. coach - Don Nelson, then at Golden State, who is responsible for starting the international wave of players by signing Lithuania's Sarunas Marciulionis in 1989. Russia's Aleksandr Volkov went to the Atlanta Hawks that season.
"When I saw Nellie over there on that trip, I knew we were on the right track," Popovich said.
Popovich worked for Nelson as an assistant coach for two seasons before returning to San Antonio to become the executive vice president for basketball operations and general manager in 1994. With his influence and the diligence of Buford, who was promoted to general manager from head scout in 2002, the Spurs became a model of international.
Buford mined Parker with the 28th overall pick in 2001. Ginóbili was the 57th pick in the 1999 draft and did not join the Spurs until 2002. That year, the Spurs drafted Luis Scola, Ginóbili's teammate on Argentina's gold-medal-winning team at the Athens Olympics last summer. They hope to sign him for next season.
At those Olympics, Popovich was Brown's assistant for the United States team, making up for 1972, when Popovich was cut during Olympic trials. Popovich stayed on tour until 1975 in Europe before returning to the Air Force Academy to begin his coaching apprenticeship that brought him to Division III Pomona-Pitzer and later linked with Brown.
So much for spy work. Popovich said he and the military had agreed that basketball would be best for him and the country. "That's too long a story," he said with a cryptic smile. "Let's say it didn't work out."
* Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
I really don't get why people insist on calling Tim Duncan an international player! Doesn't he represent the US Basketball team in the Olympics? What, all of a sudden it he's both international and american depending on how it suits their purpose?? Just plain idiotic. People should just choose!
"But Popovich had to explain the contest three times. "Manu was like, 'Spelling bees? Where are the bees?' " Popovich said."
That's hilarious. I love Manu sometimes.
Because they don't know the islands are U.S. territories. Your a citizen when your born there. We have a Federal Courthouse etc there.
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