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Great article
DALLAS -- A few days ago, after the Spurs had seen the quietest 19-game winning streak in NBA history come to an end, Gregg Popovich gathered his players on the practice floor. Surely, the topic must have been setting sturdier screens, making harder cuts or achieving better floor balance in transition defense.
Actually, no. Pop wanted to talk about the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The landmark federal law outlawing discrimination and enforcing equal voting rights was passed 50 years ago this summer. If you have to ask why a basketball coach who very clearly discriminates against a certain segment of the population -- sideline reporters -- was telling his team about this in the waning days of his 15th consecutive 50-win season, well, you don't know Pop.
But who really knows Pop? Who really knows the Spurs? They are a modern marvel, the living, breathing expression of sustained greatness -- yet their essence escapes us. Their success has spanned two generations of players who've passed through and adhered to the San Antonio Way. Theirs is a stubborn, unyielding (some would say boring) way of winning that has withstood the test of time and reinvented itself again and again with new supporting personnel producing the same methodical results.
But do we really know the Spurs? Do we really know why their way of doing things has produced four championships and five Finals appearances since they drafted Tim DuncanNo. 1 in 1997? No, we don't know them -- at least not as well as we should. If we strive to, we better hurry up. We better do what Popovich never does.
"Coaches are never satisfied with how well players cut or set screens or play transition D or select uncontested shots rather than contested shots, because it's not a perfect game," Popovich said. "... Now, when you're selecting a player, if you can find a guy that shows some proclivity or innate desire and ability to do those things and to care, that helps you.
"So when you're scouting players," he continued, "when you're doing background checks on players, when you're talking to people about a player, you want to know how he reacts with his teammates. How does he react in practices? What kind of effort does he put in? How fundamentally sound is he? Do mistakes bother him? Can he be coached? Can he be criticized? Can you show him film? Does he want to get better? All those kinds of questions you try to answer ahead of time. It's still a bit subjective and you can be fooled, but in general, if you can get answers to all those questions in the positive, you're in pretty good shape."
More here...
http://www.cbssports.com/nba/writer/...ily-atmosphere
Pretty lengthy article but worth the read.
Great article
Wow great read. Really makes me wish I was a basketball player balling for the SA Spurs. Can't we send an article like this to the next free agent we recruit!?
cbs on a roll lately
You don't find interviews with Pop that often that have any depth in the questions and responses. This was a good one.
" So we just try to be the best team that we can each year; and that doesn't mean you're going to win a championship every year. Those are pretty tough to win. A lot tougher than most people think." Defeatist at ude imho
Well there you go. I hope all of you are feeling a little more secure now that the media has written a nice article about the Spurs and patted them on the ass and told them how great they are.
Seriously though...good read. Some nice quotes by Pop.
Accepting reality is defeatist? I don't think he's saying that they don't think they can win every year; he's saying that sometimes you do the best that you can and don't win because your best just wasn't good enough. He's saying that winning les is an exceptionally hard thing to do and takes great talent, incredible work, and some good luck.
Understanding that reality seems pretty intelligent and realistic.
Last edited by FromWayDowntown; 04-15-2014 at 10:01 AM.
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