Holding Court – Gregg Popovich is NBA’s best coach

Bert A. Ramirez

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There’s little question that Gregg Popovich, the coach of the San Antonio Spurs, is regarded by most observers as the best coach in the NBA today. Columnist Bert Ramirez analyzes how he has risen to that distinction

REMEMBER THE ALAMODOME. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich hasn't won less than 50 games in a full season during his 18-year tenure with the team. Photo by Paul Buck/EPA

MANILA, Philippines – There’s little question that Gregg Popovich, the coach of the San Antonio Spurs over the last 18 years, is regarded by most observers as the best coach in the NBA today.  No, he won’t likely win Coach of the Year honors this year; Phoenix headman Jeff Hornacek is more likely to win it (and that’s gonna be the subject of a separate piece), but make no mistake, when one talks of the most highly-regarded head coach in the league today, there won’t likely be any other name mentioned than Popovich’s.

Somebody who has steered the Spurs to no less than 50 wins in a full season would present a living proof of a tactician who has really done himself proud.  Just look at Pop’s (as he’s fondly called) number of victories over the past 18 years (minus the two seasons where a lockout prevented teams from playing the full 82-game schedule and his first where he didn’t coach the team the whole campaign): 56, 53, 58, 58, 60, 57, 59, 63, 58, 56, 54, 50, 61, 58.  

He won 17 of 64 games in his first year at the helm, when he took over from Bob Hill 18 games into the 1996-97 campaign, that fateful campaign where David Robinson was lost to injury for all but six games, enabling the Spurs to later win the draft lottery and land the 1997 draft’s top prize, Tim Duncan. He also won 37 games in the 1998-99 season, when the NBA’s first-ever lockout limited that season to 50 games, a season that, however, ended up giving Pop and the Spurs their first-ever NBA championship, and 50 contests in 2011-12, when another lockout reduced the schedule to 66 games. 

Otherwise, Popovich has never won less than 61 percent of the games in the Spurs’ slate, averaging an overall regular-season winning percentage of .684, the third-best in NBA history behind only Phil Jackson and Billy Cunningham among coaches with at least 600 games in their resume, after having compiled 951 victories and 439 losses in his career (as of March 10 games this season).

This year, Popovich is again in line to win about 60 games as his Spurs are currently toting the best record in the league at 46-16 with the recent swoon that hit hitherto-leading Indiana (four straight losses), and such powers as Oklahoma City (two straight defeats) and Miami (three straight setbacks).

But there’s more to Popovich than piling up wins in the regular season as he has won when it most counts, having secured that ultimate validation of one’s coaching ability with the four NBA championships to which he has steered the Spurs. True, he may have had the ultimate power forward in the game’s history – Duncan – but it may also be argued that while TD has been a constant, the players around him have not, and it’s a tribute to Pop’s coaching genius for him to get the most out of every version of these Spurs and create an almost machine-like, smooth-functioning team year in and year out despite its core’s advancing age.

Popovich gets animated during Game 5 of the Spurs-Heat NBA Finals series last year. Had it not been for a clutch Ray Allen 3 in Game 6, the Spurs may have hung their 5th NBA title during his tenure. Photo by John G. Mabanglo/EPA

Name them, from the days of the first two championships with David Robinson, Avery Johnson, Sean Elliott, Mario Ellie, Bruce Bowen, Stephen Jackson and later Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, the Spurs were able to transition successfully to two more title runs with such guys as Robert Horry, Brent Barry, Rasho Nesterovic and Michael Finley backing up the ensuing Big Three of Duncan, Parker and Ginobili.  And when many thought their title-contending days were over, younger guys like Tiago Splitter, Danny Green, Kawhi Leonard and DeJuan Blair assumed their place and helped San Antonio get into another championship series last year.  The Spurs eventually lost to Miami 4-3 but if not for a botched rebound play in the closing seconds of Game 6 where Chris Bosh grabbed a three-point miss by LeBron James and found Ray Allen in the corner for an open three-pointer that sent the game into overtime, the Spurs would have won a fifth title to add to the four they earned in 1999, 2003, 2005 and 2007.

While a number of people would also attribute San Antonio’s success to general manager R.C. Buford for ably replenishing the team’s cupboard over the years (making some regard him as the best among his peers), not even the best personnel moves would have mattered in the end without Popovich making it all work from the bench.

And one would be surprised to find out that it’s not the perceived control and proficiency with the Xs and Os – traits that good coaches are usually noted for – that’s critical to the success of Popovich, a US Air Force Academy graduate who served in the US Air Force and was the league’s Coach of the Year in 2003 and 2012.  It’s actually what former Celtics great and coach Tommy Heinsohn refers to as “player empowerment” while talking about the coaching style of Celtics patriarch Red Auerbach, still regarded by many as the greatest tactician of all, and that of his own.

The 65-year-old Popovich kind of confirms this when he says he wants to get his players engaged, making them take ownership of the offense and letting them talk it out among themselves to determine the best way they can mount an attack.  “A lot depends on the competitiveness and the character of the player,” Pop says.  “Oftentimes, I’ll appeal to that – like, ‘I can’t make every decision for you.  I don’t have 14 timeouts. You guys got to get together and talk.  You guys might see a mismatch that I don’t see.  You guys need to communicate constantly – talk, talk, talk to each other about what’s going on (inside) the court.’

“I think that communication thing really helps them. It engenders a feeling that they can actually be in charge.  I think competitive-character people don’t want to be manipulated constantly to do what one individual wants them to do. It’s a great feeling when players get together and do things as a group.  Whatever can be done to empower those people.”

Getting them to make decisions is an excellent way of making them function better, according to the Spurs mentor, the longest-tenured coach in all four major pro sports in the US. “Sometimes in timeouts I’ll say, ‘I’ve got nothing for you.  What do you want me to do? We just turned it over six times. Everybody’s holding the ball.  What else do you want me to do here?  Figure it out,’” he tells them.  “And I’ll get up and walk away.  Because it’s true.  There’s nothing else I can do for them.  I can give them some (expletive), and act like I’m a coach or something, but it’s on them. If they’re holding the ball, they’re holding the ball. I certainly didn’t tell them to hold the ball.  Just like, if they make five in a row, I didn’t do that. If they get a great rebound, I didn’t do that. It’s a players’ game and they’ve got to perform.  The better you can get that across, the more they take over and the more smoothly it runs.  Then you interject here or there. You call a play during the game at some point or make a substitution, that kind of thing that helps the team win. But they basically have to take charge or you never get to the top of the mountain.”

Heinsohn agrees with Pop’s style. “Absolutely,” Heinsohn nods. “I did the same thing. It gives (the players) pride of authorship, and they make a commitment in front of their teammates to make something work. I mean, who better than a player knows how a guy’s playing him or how they’re defending one of your plays?  You’ve got to have this on a team.  That’s why so many of the Celtic players ended up as coaches over the years.  I thought it was very important.”

Tim Duncan has been the lone constant during Popovich's reign as Spurs coach. Photo by Larry W. Smith/EPA

Micromanaging, Heinsohn says, does more harm than good. “I call those coaches Prussian generals,” he says. “You’re in the trenches and they’re sending you over the top and into the machine guns. I would never want to play for a guy like that.  The players don’t enjoy just playing. They enjoy being involved. They don’t just execute; they’re involved in playing the game and making it happen.

“Our basic philosophy was to stick to basic things, not set plays.  So there was room for interpretation by players.  They enjoyed having their heads worked into it. I mean, we had a system. We had an up-tempo system.  But there’s so many things they could read. It was up to them… My job more often than not was to really check the tempo of the game and get a sense of things. I’d look at fouls and who might be getting beat up on or whatever. 

“But you had to get the players’ input. That’s how you get them totally involved.  And it’s more fun for them. They’re not just sitting there checking out the cheerleaders. You’re engaging their head in the whole game all the time.”

It’s not surprising, as Heinsohn says, that many Celtics have become successful coaches themselves.  K.C. Jones and Heinsohn, for example, are on the all-time top 10 list of coaches with the highest winning percentages (see list below) while fellow ex-Celts Rick Carlisle and Don Nelson have found their way on the top 20. 

Getting players involved and letting them make decisions. It’s a coaching truism that Gregg Popovich has used to make San Antonio one of the most successful franchises in the past two decades, and turn himself into the acknowledged top man on the bench in the process.

Top win rates. Phil Jackson, Billy Cunningham, Gregg Popovich, K.C. Jones and Red Auerbach lead all coaches, in that order, with the highest regular-season winning percentage in their careers, with Jackson ranking No. 1 with a career win clip of .704.

The top 10 coaches in terms of career win clip (minimum of 600 games) are (number of NBA championships won in parentheses):

1. Phil Jackson – 1,155 wins-485 losses, .704 (11), 2.  Billy Cunningham – 454-196, .698 (1), 3.  Gregg Popovich – 951-439, .684 (4), 4.  K.C. Jones – 522-252, .674 (2), 5.  Red Auerbach – 938-479, .662 (9), 6.  Pat Riley – 1,210-694, .636 (5), 7. Tom Heinsohn – 427-263, .619 (2), 8. Jerry Sloan – 1,221-803, .603 (0), 9.  George Karl – 1,131-756, .599 (0), 10.  Chuck Daly – 638-437, .593 (2).

Jackson won six titles with Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls and five with the LA Lakers, Auerbach won nine with the Bill Russell-led Boston Celtics before presiding over seven more as their president/general manager prior to his death in 2006, while Pat Riley pocketed four with the Lakers before winning another with Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O’Neal in Miami.

All the titles they won came with just one team: Popovich (4) with San Antonio, Jones (2) and Heinsohn (2) with Boston, and the late Daly (2) with Detroit.

SHORTSHOTS: Fifth-term Republican Rep. Pat Garofalo of Minnesota drew the ire of netizens when he tweeted on March 9: “Let’s be honest, 70 percent of teams in NBA could fold tomorrow and nobody would notice a difference with possible exception of increase in street crime,” alluding to NBA players as probable perpetrators.  Garofalo later apologized for his tweet… Rajon Rondo passed Bill Russell for No. 5 on the all-time Celtics assists leaders list when he passed for 18 dimes in the Celtics’ 118-111 victory over Detroit last March 9.  Rondo had more assists than the entire Pistons team (17) and had no turnovers in the process, becoming the first player to do so since Steve Nash in 2007.  Next up for Rondo to pass on the Celtics list is No. 4 Paul Pierce. Bob Cousy remains the all-time leader, followed by John Havlicek and Larry Bird… All-Star forward Blake Griffin continued with his hot streak last March 10 as he scored 37 points, including 8-for-8 from midrange, to lead the LA Clippers to their eighth straight victory in beating Phoenix 112-105. – Rappler.com

Bert A. Ramirez has been a freelance sportswriter/columnist since the ’80s, writing mostly about the NBA and once serving as consultant and editor for Tower Sports Magazine, the longest-running locally published NBA magazine, from 1999 to 2008.  He has also written columns and articles for such publications as Malaya, Sports Digest, Winners Sports Weekly, Pro Guide, Sports Weekly, Sports Flash, Sports World, Basketball Weekly and the FIBA’s International Basketball, and currently writes a fortnightly column for QC Life and a weekly blog for BostonSports Desk.  A former corporate manager, Bert has breathed, drunk and slept sports most of his life.


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