J-Speaks: Coach Pop Joins the 1,000 Win Club

On Dec. 10, 1996, then general manager of the San Antonio Spurs Gregg Popovich fired then head coach Bob Hill and named himself the team’s new head coach. Nearly two decades later, the Spurs have not only been a perennial playoff team, they have won five titles in six chances. They have been able to draft and sign foreign players, three of which have been the backbone of their great success and have set a standard that many NBA teams have tried to copy. This past Monday night, Popovich, who has won three Coach of the Year Awards, joined a very exclusive club.

When the Spurs (33-19) earned a 95-93 victory at the Indiana Pacers (20-33) overcoming a 14-point deficit in the fourth period that was capped by a game-winning jumper by Spurs’ guard Marco Bellinelli with 2.1 seconds left, Popovich earned his 1,000 regular season career win as a head coach.

He joins 11-time NBA champion Phil Jackson, six-time NBA champion Pat Riley, Jerry Sloan, former ESPN NBA analyst George Karl, formers NBA head coaches Rick Adelman, Don Nelson, Larry Brown and Lenny Wilkens as the only head coaches with 1,000 career wins or more. 

He is also the third fastest in NBA history to reach that mark in 1,462 games. Riley did it in 1,434 games and Jackson reached the 1,000 win mark in 1,423 games.

 “I’ve been here for a long time and I’ve had good players. That’s the formula,” Popovich said after the game on Monday night.

“Getting the players is difficult, but I’ve been fortunate to have good ones. The time, that’s the most important element. You have to be around for a while, I guess.”

To put this amazing accomplishment into perspective, in the period of time Popovich has gotten to 1,000 victories, the Detroit Pistons and Washington Wizards have gone through 12 different head coaches each.

What has also helped the Spurs cause in this amazing run is the fact that they have been able to find amazing players that their roots stem from beyond the United States borders.

Nine of the 15 players in the roster are foreign born, which includes their “Big Three” of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili.

When it comes down to it, if Hall of Famer and two-time champion with the Spurs David Robinson does not sustain an injured back and a broken foot in the 1996-97 season, the Spurs would not have gotten the No. 1 overall pick, which they used to select Duncan out of Wake Forest 18 years ago and who knows if they would have had the success they would have had.

As mentioned, the Spurs have had the ability to find players late in the draft that are from overseas.

That trend began 14 years ago when the team selected Tony Parker from France with the 28^th pick in the 2001 NBA Draft. All he has done in his amazing career is be help the Spurs win four of their five titles, being named The Finals MVP in 2007 when they swept the Cleveland Cavaliers and eventual four-time MVP LeBron James 4-0. He has made six All-Star teams; is a three-time All-NBA Second Team selection and has become the Spurs best player.

Two years prior, the Spurs with the 57 pick of the 1999 draft selected from Argentina Manu Ginobili. He joined the team in 2002 and has played a major role in helping win four more titles with the Spurs. He has made two All-Star teams; been a two-time All-NBA Third Team selection and won the Sixth Man of the Year Award in 2008.

Along with the “Big Three,” the Spurs have been able to surround them with great role players who only cared about winning and playing their roles to perfection. Those role players have included Michael Finley, Rasho Nesterovic, Corey Joseph, Bruce Bowen, Brent Barry, current Pacers’ lead guard George Hill, Boris Diaw, Stephen Jackson, Steve Kerr, Avery Johnson, Sean Elliott, aforementioned Bellinelli, Robert Horry, Matt Bonner and 2014 Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard.

It has also helped that Popovich has had the support of team owner Peter Holt and GM R.C. Buford.

While the Spurs have made the playoffs for 17 years, soon to be 18 this year, they have had some seasons where they did not reach the NBA mountain top.

In 2000, the then defending champion Spurs lost in the First Round to the Phoenix Suns 4-1, as they were without Tim Duncan who was injured.

They were swept in the 2001 Western Conference Finals by Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers in 4-0, who went on to win their second straight title. The next season, the Lakers got the Spurs again in the West Semifinals 4-1.

After capturing the tile in 2003, the Spurs lost to the Lakers again in the Semis 4-2 the next season.

After capturing their third title the next year, the Spurs lost a tight Game 7 in the Semifinals at home to interstate rival and the eventual Western Conference champion Dallas Mavericks in overtime.

After the 2007 championship, their fourth of that decade, it would be five early exits and one crushing loss Game 6 loss in The Finals against the eventual back-to-back champion Miami Heat before the Spurs captured their next fifth title in team history a season ago.

Most team who go through that kind of roller coaster would have cut ties with their head coach and started from scratch. Not the Spurs and they have been rewarded for that tunnel vision and forward thinking as Popovich and Sloan are the only two head coaches in NBA history to record their 1,000 wins with just one franchise.

On top of that, Popovich has been able to adapt his team to the times of the league.

The Spurs first four championships were won by being a hard nose defensive team that offensively went through Duncan and the team played off of that.

In the seasons that followed, the team changed their philosophy on offensive were they became a more spread out team that shot a large number of three-pointers and off of their defensive became a more up tempo offensive team that played more in the open court.

Monday night’s victory was a great example of that as Parker lead the way with 19 points and six assists. Duncan had 15 points, eight rebounds and five block shots.

“A thousand wins, that’s a lot of wins and I feel very lucky that I’ve been with him for a lot of them,” Parker said after the game on Monday night. “We’ve experienced so much stuff together. I’m just very happy for him.”  

Along with having great players, Popovich has had a number of great assistant coaches, front office people and some former players who have gone one to become head coaches themselves or work in the front office in other places.

That amazing coaching tree includes New Orleans Pelicans head coach Monty Williams; Philadelphia 76ers head man Brett Brown; Atlanta Hawks head coach Mike Budenholzer, whose team is leading the East at 43-10; Kirk Snyder of Utah Jazz; Steve Kerr of the Western Conference leading Golden State Warriors (41-9) and interim head coach James Borrego of the Orlando Magic, who replaced Jacque Vaughn.

Other former head coaches who have Spurs ties are Mike Brown; current NBA on ESPN analyst Avery Johnson, who sank the shot that won the Spurs their first title back in 1999 in five games over the New York Knicks and current NBATV analyst and former head coach of the Los Angeles Clippers and Chicago Bulls Vinny Del Negro.

This past off-season, Popovich added another high IQ coach to his staff in former WNBA star Becky Hammon, who became the first full-time female assistant coach on an NBA team.

Perhaps what has separated the Spurs from the rest of the NBA pack is that they are team that is just about winning basketball games and not creating any drama.

It is why you will see from time to time over the past few years, Coach Popovich rest some key cogs of the Spurs during the regular season like Duncan, Parker, Ginobili and others so that the team, which is one of the oldest in the league in recent years give valuable playing time to some reserve players as well as keep the team fresh for the postseason.

They are just about playing the game as a team and taking the credit as a whole from the front office to the players, which has earned them the respect from the opposition.  

After the game on Monday night, Popovich was greeted by Pacers head coach Frank Vogel and former understudy Hill, who was traded from the Spurs on draft night in 2011 for the 15^th overall pick, which turned out to be Leonard.

“He’s somebody that all of us active coaches look up to and sort of the godfather of the active coaches right now,” Vogel said on Monday night. “We all look up to him and try to emulate him and try to learn from him.”  

To reach 1,000 wins as an NBA head coach is very difficult. To do it with one team is even more special. Head Coach Gregg Popovich love or not is one of the best on the sideline NBA history. Is a sure fire first ballot Hall of Famer as is Tim Duncan and both are far from done. When the end of the road is, no one knows. Until then, we should enjoy this for as long as it last.

Information, statistics and quotes are courtesy of 2/10/15 6:30 p.m. NBATV’s “The Starters” with Trey Kerby, J.E. Skeets, Tas Melas and Leigh Ellis; www.espn.go.com/nba/schedule?date=20150203; www.espn.go.com/nba/standings; en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregg_Popovich; en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Hill_(basketball); en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Washington_Wizards_head_coaches; en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Detroit_Pistons_head_coaches.