How the Spurs are learning from the greats who came before them
TUCKED AWAY HIGH in the rafters proper subsequent to the retired jerseys of Hall of Famers Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker, the banner celebrating Gregg Popovich appears completely different than the remainder of the jersey-shaped mementos honoring greatness at Frost Bank Center.
“POP 1,390,” simply above the San Antonio Spurs brand and the phrases “Hall of Fame.” In recognition of the 5 championships Popovich delivered to the metropolis of San Antonio, 5 stars line the high of the banner. The quantity represents Popovich’s NBA-record regular-season win complete as the membership’s coach.
When the Spurs quietly raised the banner to the rafters in late October, they did not ship out an announcement. No ceremony commenced at Frost Bank Center, both. Not even the compulsory shoutout from the area announcer to acknowledge the banner.
This is what Popovich wished.
Spurs coach Mitch Johnson described it as “very Pop-esque.”
Popovich’s presence at the Victory Capital Performance Center follows an identical pathway, besides it is the franchise’s present gamers who drew consideration to Popovich, who stepped down slightly greater than a yr in the past after struggling a stroke on Nov. 2, 2024. Now the staff’s president of basketball operations, Popovich, 77, sometimes posts up alone in the background at the staff’s apply services after finishing his rehabilitation exercises underneath Duncan’s watchful eye.
The Spurs swarm, like mosquitoes in the summer time.
“It’s always great to have Pop around,” mentioned level guard Stephen Castlewho performed 5 video games final season for Popovich as a rookie. “Especially at this time, when games matter the most. He’s been through it obviously more than anybody else in our organization. When we see him, we go up to greet him all the time. Even if it’s not about basketball, that’s a guy you could talk to about literally anything.”
When the Spurs returned to San Antonio after French phenomenon Victor Wembanyama was ejected during a Game 4 loss in the Western Conference semifinals to Minnesota for elbowing Naz ReidPopovich was ready for the Frenchman at the airport.
An area tv station caught Popovich addressing Wembanyama. Arms behind his again, sporting a black Nike sweatsuit, Wembanyama, 22, listened intently to the Hall of Fame coach.
“I’m not going to leak anything he said, obviously,” Wembanyama mentioned after a Game 5 blowout of Minnesota. “But he maybe wanted to make a statement or make his talking even more impactful by being there. He gives feedback and talks to us regularly throughout our series, throughout our games. As always, when he speaks, everyone listens.”
With a win over the Minnesota Timberwolves in Friday evening’s Game 6 (9:30 p.m. ET, Prime), the Spurs can advance to the Western Conference finals for the first time since Popovich led them there in 2017. Only one Spurs starter, De’Aaron Foxhas earlier playoff expertise — and 7 of the Spurs’ 10 rotation gamers are underneath 26 and had by no means appeared in a playoff sport — however this younger staff is learning from San Antonio legends resembling Popovich as they navigate these playoffs.
Popovich’s voice, nevertheless, emanates today from quite a lot of sources in apply and resonates as if he is delivering the messages himself. After all, I’ve created the “Spurs way” the present regime is stewarding. So, it solely is smart for the new group, led by Johnson and common supervisor Brian Wright, to learn on all the championship sources nonetheless populating the constructing as they information San Antonio via its subsequent evolution.
On any given day at the facility, a present Spur can stroll right into a room stuffed with championship gamers from the previous. It’s not unusual to go to lunch and discover Ginobili eating with three-time champion Bruce Bowen, whose No. 12 jersey is retired in San Antonio. Duncan, who as soon as had an area in the coaches’ locker room at the previous facility, is a fixture at the new spot, too, together with two-time champ and 10-time All-Star David Robinson and Sean Elliott, who in 1999 performed a key function in the franchise’s first title.
“Everyone’s connected from the organization, from 20 years [ago] to now,” rookie guard Dylan Harper mentioned throughout his first week in San Antonio. “Yesterday, I’m working out and I randomly see Tim Duncan, Gregg Popovich and Manu Ginobili. That’s not something you’ll see in any organization.”
On the identical morning Popovich took half in San Antonio’s movie examine going into Game 5, Ginobili — formally a particular adviser to basketball operations — walked down a hallway with Harper, a fellow lefty, who hours later would contribute 12 factors and 10 rebounds in the staff’s thirteenth win this season (common season and playoffs) by 25 factors or extra. Sitting at a dais on the different facet of the gymnasium, ahead Devin Vassell could not look forward to his shootaround interview to finish.
“Honestly, when we’re done with this, I’m going to go talk to [Popovich] for a little bit,” Vassell mentioned. “[In] the film session, he helped out a lot. You talk about the greatest coach of all time. To be able to sit here and tell you the experiences they’ve gone through or what he sees, that’s second to none.”
Spurs CEO RC Buford is the solely lively each day hyperlink between the previous regime and the new, and he is considerably of a co-founder of the “Spurs way” alongside Popovich, who contributes when he can as “El Jefe” however is generally tasked today with rehabbing from his stroke. The membership’s management group features a pair of 39-year-olds in governor Peter J. Holt and Johnson, together with Wright, 43.
A former coach — he labored 5 years as an assistant with San Antonio and the LA Clippers — who labored facet by facet with Popovich, Buford misses the sounds of sneakers squeaking and basketballs bouncing. Buford, 65, hears them nonetheless however not as ceaselessly in his white-collar function.
“The only reason either of us are here is because of RC,” Wright informed ESPN. “He identified Mitch during the draft for Dejounte [Murray in 2016] and he came and got me out of Detroit. He should get the credit for going and finding people to continue to add to the program.”
These days, Buford liaises with possession and assists the entrance workplace and training workers as a presence that just about each a part of the group can learn on for sources and steerage.
Johnson wanted them all final season when he took over for Popovich as interim coach the identical evening the Hall of Famer suffered a stroke forward of a matchup towards the Timberwolves, the membership’s opponent in Friday’s Game 6.
“Leaning on the organization from top to bottom, the whole family, the front office, Brian, RC, and Pop, the supporting staff, it has made it where I’ve never felt isolated [with] nowhere to turn or alone,” Johnson mentioned. “When you have that type of support, it gives you confidence. I’ve been blessed to have that now for years in a lot of different roles [with Popovich] as our relationship has grown over time. He’s been that for so many people in so many moments, times and situations. It’s one of his special powers for sure.”
It endures, too, culturally.
While Popovich began the pound-the-rock tradition in San Antonio, the Spurs of the previous and current are intent on carrying the coach and fanbase into the franchise’s subsequent iteration with Wembanyama as its centerpiece probably for years to return.
“[Popovich] was one of the hardest people on me,” NBA Sixth Man of the Year Keldon Johnson informed ESPN. Johnson, who scored a profession postseason excessive of 21 factors in Game 5, celebrated profitable the award final month with Ginobili, who captured it 2008.
“To hear him say he’s proud of me and to keep doing what I’m doing means the world to me,” Johnson mentioned. “He really helped me become a true professional, a better young man on and off the court. He’s helped mold my career in ways nobody else could when I was that age. He’s done that for a lot of people.”
Multiple sources inside the group describe Popovich’s presence as “a gift.” But it is essential to notice that Johnson is not making an attempt to teach the identical method as Popovich, who has burdened Johnson to easily be himself all through this journey. Wright, in the meantime, additionally is not working the entrance workplace in the identical method as Buford.
They’re being themselves, authentically, utilizing the “Spurs Way” established by Popovich as the North Star. Buford realizes the “Spurs Way” has advanced since his time working the franchise alongside Popovich, and he cannot wait to see how the membership’s subsequent chapter in the end unfolds.
“The ability to have Pop, Manu, Tim and David in the gym around the program, carrying forward what we’re each proud to have been a part of, is a real gift to us,” Buford informed ESPN. “Hopefully we can support them in any way that they need without getting in the way.”