Success with old tricks puts Popovich in position for COY
Posted Apr 26 2012 11:30AM
In this mixed-up, meatball, post-lockout season, maybe it's fitting that the NBA's Coach of the Year award winner would claim that title mostly for whom he hasn't played.
The rationale we're hearing in favor of San Antonio's Gregg Popovich, after all, typically goes like this: "He has kept Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker fresh for the playoffs." By restricting their minutes, by leaving them behind on road trips, by sending his three star players home around noon from Phoenix on Wednesday after a rigorous morning practice -- hours before tipoff -- Popovich has kept Duncan, Ginobili and Parker in virtual bubble-wrap for the more important games that begin this weekend.
It has been a season of performance art for the NBA's longest tenured head coach. A minimalist's less-is-more delight. Parlor tricks, as in, "I can win this game with one ... no, two ... wait, make that three starters tied behind my back." If Popovich could have ensured that the Spurs would win their division, nail down the West's No. 1 seed and make it to late April with a healthy team while playing only the fourth-through-14th guys on the San Antonio roster, he might have done it.
Success with old tricks puts Popovich in position for COY | NBA.com
There is even a video from NBA Action featuring the Spurs that interviews the Big Three and Kawhi and Pop... My favorite line in the video starts with "The Spurs are still the standard bearers of success thanks to a culture of winning...
NBA Action: San Antonio Spurs | NBA.com
Lastly, there is also another video where Larry Brown talks about Pop as one of the best coaches in all of basketball EVER.
http://www.nba.com/video/channels/nb...own_on_Pop.nba
Mad Props to Coach Gregg Popovich!