The Genius That Is Gregg Popovich

San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich knows what his priorities are. He gets the “big picture” of that which is professional basketball. Given his many career accomplishments, which include four NBA Championships, he has earned the right to run his team anyway he sees fit. 

That includes last Tuesday’s decision to essentially give Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, and Michael Finley a five-day break heading into their matchup with the reigning NBA Champion Boston Celtics on Sunday afternoon. 

Whether it was or ends up being a “bonehead” move or a stroke of genius by not bringing his team to full strength against the Denver Nuggets last week remains to be seen.

By essentially conceding the game to the Nuggets, Denver now owns the tie-breaker for homecourt advantage if the Spurs matchup with them in the playoffs. 

This may or may not end up being important. Only time will tell. 

The immediate result of Popovich’s decision last week was stealing a win on the road over the “World Champion” Boston Celtics, 105-99 on a nationally televised ABC broadcast. 

The strategy he employed by sitting his stars demonstrates that he is preparing the Spurs for the long road ahead that faces them, that being another run for a championship. 

Popovich as he has demonstrated year after year, is coaching the Spurs his way, not the way of the fans, the ticket holders, or NBA Commissioner; David Stern. 

His sole purpose for coaching this team the way he does is to win championships. NBA titles in 1999, 2003, 2005, and 2007 are examples of that kind of determination. 

What differentiates Popovich from other coaches around the NBA is that he understands how to groom and prepare his players from training camp to the playoffs.

He patiently develops them over a long 82-game season, until they evolve into a team ready to take on the NBA’s elite when it really counts. 

Popovich knows that the NBA season is not a sprint, rather it is a marathon, and he operates with that mentality. 

Last week’s game in Denver was just one example among many decisions over his 13-year career with the Spurs in which he understands that there is a time for everything. A time for resting players, healing wounds, and a time for testing them and pushing them to their collective limits. 

Popovich is a product of the U.S. Air Force Academy, and Air Force intelligence and process training. This experience instilled within him the qualities of discipline, hard work, character, and leadership ability. It molded him into the officer, man, and coach that he would eventually become. 

Popovich has also been blessed by the opportunity to be mentored by Larry Brown and Don Nelson. In addition, he has been fortunate enough to have players like David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili essentially fall into his lap. 

Good fortune is not what has led to his success though. His basketball mind, leadership, offensive and defensive systems, hard work, and innate ability to develop his players, many of whom come from diverse backgrounds, is the secret to his success. 

Popovich’s influence on his players is legendary. 

Tim Duncan is the ultimate example. Popovich spent considerable time with the first player selected in the 1997 NBA Draft during the summer prior to Duncan’s first NBA season with the Spurs on Duncan’s own turf in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

This experience brought Popovich and Duncan closer and forged a relationship that would shape Duncan into a leader and champion.  

This relationship that Popovich and Duncan continue to have today directly influences the Spurs current chances of winning additional championships in the window of excellence that still exists for Duncan, Parker, Ginobili, and the rest of the Spurs team. 

Tim Duncan, unlike other NBA superstars, possesses the humility as a player to set his individual ego aside, listen, to be coached by Popovich even after four NBA titles, three NBA Finals MVP trophies, and two MVP awards, and continue to listen during his 12th NBA season.

This sends a clear message that if the team captain heeds his coach and his direction, the rest of the team must certainly follow his lead. 

The development of Tony Parker is another example of what sets Popovich apart from other coaches around the league. When Parker entered his career with the Spurs in 2001 at 19 years, six months of age, Popovich publicly noted his doubts about Parker’s toughness and ability to make it as a point guard for the Spurs. 

Popovich’s unconventional nature and style as a coach developed the 28th pick in the 2001 NBA Draft into the superstar that he is today. Popovich was patient enough in coaching Parker in his early years, and this allowed Parker to evolve. 

Slowly, Parker emerged after his regular season and playoff experiences in 2001 and 2002. His performance improved further during the playoffs and NBA Finals of 2003 and 2005.

Parker eventually reached the level of play that led him to become the 2007 NBA Finals MVP. 

All of Popovich’s qualities and championship experience he has as a coach brings us to the current Spurs 2008-09 campaign. And nothing has changed. 

Popovich’s priorities are today what they have always been: playing team basketball, emphasizing defense, and coaching his team to play the way the game was designed to be played. 

This season, Popovich has continued to keep his team on their toes, and has surprised and shocked them on many occasions with his unusual approach, techniques and words of wisdom. The following are just a few examples: 

1. In training camp, he incorporated yoga into their daily routine. 

2. Prior to the Dec. 4, matchup with the Denver Nuggets, Popovich chewed his team out on their chartered jet flight bound for Denver after a 77-89 bruising defeat at home by the Detroit Pistons. During the flight, he basically questioned their manhood, and the Spurs responded with a 108-91 thumping of the Nuggets in Denver the following night. 

3. Popovich, very disappointed with his team on the road for a game with Sacramento, actually had their chartered bus stop at the State Capitol, and he gave them an earful atop the steps in front of the building where the “Governator” presides over the State of California. 

Where these examples of Popovich’s approach to coaching this season leads to remains to be seen. 

What is clear is that Popovich has his team exactly where he wants them: 

1. Doubted and criticized by NBA analysts across the country. 

2. His team’s style of play deemed as “boring” by fans near and far. 

3. The Spurs “on the back burner,” overshadowed by the NBA’s perceived elite, the Lakers, Cavaliers, and Celtics. 

4. His players heavily obscured by the “me-first” personalities of Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Kevin Garnett, and Dwight Howard’s of today’s game. 

Gregg Popovich has promised to remain the coach of the Spurs until Tim Duncan retires. Duncan becomes a free agent in 2012.

The story of the genius of Gregg Popovich will be continued...Stay tuned.