For
four seasons from 1988-92 the San Antonio Spurs had an assistant coach named
Gregg Popovich, who worked under then head coach Larry Brown who he developed a
close relationship while he was at the University of Kansas coaching the
Jayhawks men’s basketball team. In the 1996-97 season, Popovich took over a
3-15 Spurs as their head coach replacing the fired Bob Hill. He started behind
the eight ball as Hall of Famer David Robinson was on the shelf because of a
back injury suffered during the preseason. Following that rough season, the
Spurs would go on to make the playoffs for 21 straight seasons, winning five
titles along the way. However, what if I told there was a time where Popovich
was on the verge of being axed back in the 1998-99 lockout shortened NBA
campaign.
In
then just his third season as the head man on the Spurs sidelines, the man now
known as “Coach Pop” did not have the cache he has today.
The
Spurs, who would ultimately become Western Conference champions that season got
off to a rocky 6-8 start, with the eighth loss coming at home versus the Utah
Jazz 101-87 on Feb. 28, 1999. The thought of Popovich being fired and the Spurs
never becoming what they are today was very real.
“We
looked awful,” former Spur and now three-time NBA champion head coach with the
Golden State Warriors Steve Kerr, who played for the Spurs from 1998-01 and
2002-03 said of the team’s performance that evening.
“We
got [Tim] Duncan and Robinson. We’re one of the favorites to get to The Finals.
[Glenn] ‘Doc’ Rivers is doing out TV games and there’s rumors ‘Doc’ is going to
take over for ‘Pop.’”
The
Spurs’ play-by-play announcer for KSAT that season Greg Simmons who worked a
lot of Spurs games with Rivers felt that tension of was he going to replace
Popovich.
FOX
Sports Oklahoma studio analyst for the Oklahoma City Thunder Antonio Daniels,
who was the team’s backup guard said the team across the board felt the tension
about whether a coaching change was going to occur.
“We
loved ‘Pop,’ and this was before Gregg Popovich of today, 2017-18 with five championships
and the resume that he has was that Gregg Popovich” Daniels, who played for the
Spurs from 1998-02 said. “This was the Gregg Popovich with no championships.”
To
put where Coach Popovich was at that moment into context, no titles, no NBA
Coach of the Year Awards and now appearances as an All-Star head coach. He was
a leader with no resume and no job security trying to prove he belonged.
In
that 14-point home loss at the Alamodome versus the Jazz, where Popovich was
ejected, the Spurs were head to “Clutch City” to take on their interstate rival
the Houston Rockets with two straight losses, a 6-8 mark and rumors swirling of
the ouster of their head coach.
While
most coaches would be in a tizzy about their future in a moment like that,
Popovich took a different approach.
During
this time, the Spurs had a guest on their coaching staff in now former Spurs
assistant Brett Brown, who had been a head coach overseas for nearly two
decades.
Brown
remember ‘Pop’ coming to him prior to the Spurs tilt at the Rockets giving him
the lowdown of the situation and he said that no matter what happens to him, he
would be okay. Popovich’s exact words to the now head coach of the Philadelphia
76ers about that were, “I will make sure that you are okay.”
Kerr
said that Popovich urged his team to put in the work on their weaknesses and
that things would eventually turn in their direction.
While
their head coach was not panicking, the players themselves decided that if
things were going to turn around, they had to be the ones to do it.
Prior
to their Mar. 2, 1999 contest at the Rockets, the players called a team meeting
that not would not only save their season, but their head coach’s eventual Hall
of Fame career.
The
player who called that meeting was starting point guard, and current head coach
of the Alabama Crimson Tided men’s basketball squad Avery Johnson.
Johnson,
the current head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide Men’s squad according to
Daniels led the meeting that was just of the players on a bus without the head
coaches or any of the other members of the Spurs staff.
“‘Pop’
rescued my career when I was playing for the Golden State Warriors when he was
an assistant coach under Don Nelson,” Johnson, who played for the Spurs in
1991, 1992-93, and 1994-01 said. “Gave me an opportunity to come to San Antonio
and keep my career going, and it was you know, just out of a sense of loyalty
to ‘Pop,’ and I wanted to make sure he was taken of and let the team know how
passionate I was about helping save his career.”
The
Spurs dominated the Rockets on that night winning 99-82, which began a
nine-game winning streak and the start of a 31-5 finish to close the strike
shortened NBA regular season.
In
the playoffs, where the Spurs were known to have their issues went 7-1 in the
first three rounds, dominating the Minnesota Timberwolves, Los Angeles Lakers,
and Portland Trial Blazers respectably as they went on a postseason run that
was majestic and remarkable.
One
game that was a testament to the Spurs postseason that year was when they
overcame a 48-34 deficit at intermission to win Game 2 86-85 where Sean Elliott
made the game-winning three-pointer from the right corner tight roping the
sidelines as he caught the ball of an inbounds pass from Mario Elie and making
the shot over the outstretch arm of Rasheed Wallace.
The
Spurs would cap their 15-2 postseason with a 4-1 series win the 1999 NBA Finals
over the Eastern Conference champion New York Knicks.
The
first of the Spurs five titles would come a jump shot from the left corner on
the opposite end with 47.6 seconds off the left hand of Johnson, who help
jumpstart the Spurs ascension that season by calling a team meeting four months
earlier.
For
much of the 1990s, the Spurs led by Robinson and eventually Tim Duncan, the
Spurs always had the talent to be champions, but it took a special player to
call the rest of his team out and as well as himself. Avery Johnson looked
himself in the mirror and his teammates to do the same. That meeting before
their previously mentioned tilt at the Rockets changed the course of not just
the Spurs season, but perhaps the course of their franchise.
What
if though Popovich did not survive the season? Would the Spurs still have made it
to The Finals that year or the four other titles that followed? Would Popovich
had gotten another chance to be a head coach in “The Association?”
Daniels
said, “One of the things you think about, if ‘Pop’ was fired, does Tim come
back?”
“If
Tim doesn’t come back, are the Spurs still in San Antonio? Or, do the Spurs
move elsewhere? Are they in St. Louis [MO]? Are they in Las Vegas [NV], or do
they move to a different venue?”
The
San Antonio Spurs gave Gregg Popovich a chance. The front office was patient
with him and the Spurs were rewarded for that patience with five titles, three
NBA Coach of the Year Awards and four All-Star Game appearances as the head
coach of the Western Conference.
Not
only are the Spurs five-time champions, but Popovich has created a coaching
tree where some of his former assistants in Mike Budenholzer, Mike Brown, Brett
Brown are head coaches or have been head coaches with the likes of the Atlanta
Hawks, 76ers, Cleveland Cavaliers and Charlotte Hornets, who are now led by
former Spurs’ assistant James Borrego, who had a cup of coffee with the Orlando
Magic a couple of years back. Even a former player in Kerr has made as
mentioned a great name for himself as a head coach with the Warriors.
As
good as Popovich has been and continues to be, Kerr mentioned that he will tell
you the whole key to the Spurs success was the foundation that was put in place
first with David Robinson in 1990 and continued with Tim Duncan for nearly two
decades from 1997-2016.
Information,
statistics, and quotations are courtesy of 5/12/18 edition of NBATV original,
hosted by Chris Miles “What If?” www.basketball-reference.com/boxscore/19990531SAS.html;
“2006-07 Official NBA Guide,” by Sporting News; and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregg_Popovich.
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