Popovich not only won the NBA, he embodied it

The Spurs' coach and the alltime coaching leader in wins steps off the bench.

Gregg Popovich at Pomona-Pitzer

He always said two ping-pong balls were the key. If they hadn’t fallen the right way for the San Antonio Spurs, in 1987 and 1997, you wouldn’t know Gregg Popovich from Erin Brokovich. There was a third ping-pong ball, too, the one that came up “Spurs” in 2023, but Popovich didn’t have time for that one. He had a stroke on Nov. 2, early in the second year of Victor Wembanyama’s career, and on Friday he retired to become club president, at age 76.

The Spurs won the draft lotteries that brought David Robinson and Tim Duncan. You not only have to be lucky to get the draw, there has to be a spectral talent, sitting right there. Some teams get the first pick and wind up taking Andrea Bargnani or Anthony Bennett. The Spurs won five NBA championships, and Popovich won more games than any coach in NBA history. He is third in games coached, fourth in winning percentage among 20-year coaches, second in games over .500, and tied for third in championships, with only Phil Jackson and Red Auerbach ahead. He always said the bouncing ball was why it all happened. His favorite expression, always, was “Get over yourself.”

Popovich and the Spurs won those titles in a 15-year span. They beat the Knicks in 1999 as Popovich had his 3-point shooters revolve around Robinson and Duncan, like moons of Jupiter, a precursor to today’s downtown game. They beat the Nets in 2003 and in 2005 they knocked off Detroit, the defending champs, with Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker as the main drivers. Two years after that, they swept the Cavaliers, and a young LeBron James. Seven years after that, they beat a grown-up James and Dwyane Wade, evening the score after Miami had beaten the Spurs in 2013, and Kawhi Leonard was the Finals MVP.

Popovich’s teams were 5-1 in Finals competition. Getting there was the tough part. They had to deal with the Shaq-Kobe Lakers, sweeping them in ‘99, eliminating them in ‘03, but taking their lumps as well. There was also the Malone-Stockton Utah Jazz teams, and various challenges from Portland and Dallas. One never knows what might have happened if Golden State’s Zaza Pachulia hadn’t barged into Leonard, on a 3-point shot, and knocked him out of the 2017 playoffs. It was Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals and San Antonio was in command. The Warriors won that game, every other game in the series, and eventually the championship.

The league reacted with a rule that assessed a technical for such careless closeouts, but that did nothing to heal Leonard’s already-damaged ankle. The real damage came later during Leonard’s elongated recuperation, which prompted the Spurs to trade him to Toronto, where he led the Raptors to a title. Given a healthy Leonard, it’s hard to imagine what the Spurs might have done.

This prompted one of Leonard’s classic post-game media confabs, in which he listed Pachulia’s hatchet-man history, case by case, and ridiculed the person who questioned the impact of the play.

“It doesn’t matter whether it was intentional or not. Ever heard of manslaughter?” Popovich sputtered. “A two-step, lead-with-your-foot closeout is not appropriate. It’s dangerous, it’s unsportsmanlike, it’s just not what anybody does to anybody else. We’ve had a pretty damn good season. I think we’re getting better. We’re ahead of Golden State by 23 points in the third quarter, and then Kawhi goes down, like that. And you want to know how we feel? That’s how we feel.”

Popovich stopped.

“Follow-up?” he asked, his glare melting into a smile, and the group broke up.

That was Popovich, in a sound bite. He was as serious as a heart attack about the things that meant something, which usually boiled down to basketball and family. Everything else was lampoon material. While other coaches gritted teeth and did the silly sideline interviews during time outs, Popovich made sure the questioner was as uncomfortable as possible, then offered a friendly slap on the back as he rejoined the huddle. When Mark Jones of ESPN asked him about his thoughts on the third quarter, Popovich replied, “We’re behind.” If he was trying to get such interviews banned, he miscalculated. They became must-see TV.

In 2012, the league scheduled a Spurs game at Miami for TNT’s Thursday audience, in hopes of a ratings moonshot. Then Popovich benched Duncan, Ginobili, Parker and Danny Green. This was the fourth game in five days for the Spurs. NBA commissioner David Stern fined the Spurs $250,000 for that, but it wasn’t the last time Popovich did it. This was his statement against the inhumanity of the NBA schedule and the primacy of TV. Soon other teams were resting healthy players, too. Popovich became the godfather of load management. He’d been called worse.

Coach-speak bored Popovich. He would much rather talk politics. He called Donald Trump “the biggest whiner that ever walked the face of the earth” and “the worst example of a fifth-grade bully,” and said Trump’s first election “makes me feel we’re being invaded.” He also preferred to discuss wine, and how he didn’t think much of California brands.

Yet Popovich became a clearinghouse for NBA coaches. Steve Kerr, Ime Udoka and Doc Rivers all played for him, Quin Snyder coached the Spurs’ G-League team, Mike Budenholzer was a long-time coaching lieutenant, Mike Brown, Will Hardy and Taylor Jenkins were all on his staff, and Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon also coached for him. Most of the aforementioned coaches have been rumored to inherit Popovich’s seat, but Mitch Johnson was in the right spot when the music stopped. He handled the Spurs after Popovich’s stroke and will be the head coach now, with Popovich as club president.

Six future NBA general managers came through the Alamo City, including Oklahoma City’s Sam Presti, who wheeled and dealt his team into a 68-win season.

So there’s no one who has influenced the NBA landscape more than Popovich, with his emphasis on turning down good shots to find great ones. And yet his formative years were at Pomona-Pitzer, an intellectually rich Division III school that stood 32 miles and several light years east of L.A.’s Fabulous Forum. Popovich and wife Erin lived in a campus apartment, and one of his first teams went 2-22. Caltech broke a 99-game losing streak against Pomona-Pitzer. They were there eight years, and Popovich won three Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference titles. He liked it because he could experiment and tinker and coach like nobody was watching, because nobody was. “I thought I’d be there my whole life,” he said.

But after seven years he was required to take a sabbatical, and he wound up visiting North Carolina and then Kansas, where Larry Brown was the coach. Two years later Brown hired Popovich as an assistant, and the Air Force Academy grad eventually followed Brown to San Antonio.

“I’ve always said I’m faking it as an NBA coach, because at heart I’m a Division III coach,” Popovich said. “And I’ve never been part of a rivalry like the one we had with Claremont McKenna. If you lost that game you felt like jumping off a building.”

Faking it for a year or two is one thing, but Popovich coached the Spurs for 29 years, and ping-pong balls were only an accessory. Parker was the 28th player picked in his draft, Ginobili, an international star, was the 57th player picked in his.

Bruce Bowen knocked around European and G-League teams, and lived in the nether world of NBA 10-day contracts, for eight years before Popovich employed him. Bowen stayed in San Antonio for eight years and became a defensive celebrity for the way he harassed Kobe Bryant. Popovich found a way for Mario Elie and Malik Rose and Boris Diaw to become NBA playmakers. Matt Bonner, the New Hampshire native known as the Red Rocket, began his pro career for a team in Sicily that went bankrupt. He came to the Spurs and led the NBA in 3-point percentage in 2011.

Beyond all that, the Spurs exploded the myth that small markets are hopeless. San Antonio is the 31st-ranked TV market, but the Spurs are its only major league team. Because of the five banners and the annual playoff runs and the general lack of toxic drama, they are a magnet for players. The development of Wembanyama, provided he recovers from deep vein thrombosis in his shoulder, will hasten that process.

The other day Stephon Castle won the Rookie of the Year Award. The Spurs got him with the fourth pick in last year’s draft. When he got the trophy, he was joined by Wembanyama, Robinson and Duncan, all Rookies of the Year themselves, all keeping the circle intact. That, too, is a bread crumb from Popovich. In a league expressly built for individuals, the Spurs were an entity. They always got over themselves.

Going from an empty gym to the top of the sport is a long way for a ping-pong ball to bounce. But Pomona-Pitzer’s loss was the NBA’s transformation.