Rumors

RC Buford on Gregg Popovich: “He’s incredibly disciplined—one of the most disciplined people I’ve ever met. He comes into the gym five days a week, does his rehabilitation, and continues to get better. The most emotional part of his journey now is that Tim has been in the gym with him every day. When Manu, Tony, or Boris come in from out of town, they’re there with him every day as well. It’s incredible to see the love and respect they have for each other. None of those guys have to be there, and Pop would still be there whether they were or not. To me, that shows we have a different kind of relationship and emotional connection within our organization, because I don’t think there are many teams where you would see that.”

YouTube

San Antonio Spurs: Gregg Popovich on the passing of Spurs College Scout Mark Freidinger.

Twitter

R.C. on Pop: "Pop is recovering amazingly well from his stroke...Tim Duncan's been there everyday...Tony or Manu or visitors from other teams...they all come & spend time with Pop... It's really emotional to see how connected our group has been for so long and how they continue to show up for Pop."

reddit

Tom Orsborn: Spurs pay tribute to Doug Moe with a moment of silence. Moe, who died Tuesday at age 87, ranks second to Pop in franchise history for games coached and wins.

bsky.app

Derrick White on Gregg Popovich: It was a blessing for sure to get him as my first coach. Even the organization as a whole, it was definitely a blessing. I think like he'll just tell you how it is, like he's not gonna sugarcoat you. He's not gonna kind of lead you on and make you think that like I'm gonna get some minutes here or whatnot. And I think the big thing that I learned from him is like if you respect the game, you play the game the right way, the game will reward you and like the basketball somehow feels that energy of you doing the wrong things or you're not playing the right way and it'll come come back and get you in the long run.

YouTube

Former San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich visited the team's practice this morning, spending some one-on-one time chatting with Victor Wembanyama, Julian Champagnie, and Mitch Johnson

reddit

VanVleet also used the same platform to praise Rockets head coach Ime Udoka, drawing a direct line to his coaching roots under Gregg Popovich, Basketball Network reports. “He gets credit for the stern face and holding guys accountable,” VanVleet said. “But I really just call him the black Pop. He came up under Pop.”

Heavy.com

Patty Mills: First day of preparing for the 2014 NBA finals: LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, and the Miami Heat. So I get to practice. You can't believe how intense this feeling is to be like, "We're back. All right, everyone, lock in." That's the feeling as you're driving the practice. Keeping it light but not too joking around. The clock is counting down before it goes off, and then we start, and sure enough, it goes off, and one of the coaches says, "All right, everyone in the film room, we're starting in the film room," which was probably understandable. So we all go into the film room, and I sit in the second row in the middle, Manu Ginobili behind me, always kicking me in the head or slapping my knee or playing some sort of game. But then we sat. So here we are, and you can feel the like the not tension in the room, but you could just feel like, all right, you know, what's the game plan here? You know, we're going to get this thing done. And Pops is at his table in front of the whiteboard and the TV, and he's looking down at the palm cards that he always has, and he looks up, and he looks at all of us, and he says, "Uh, do you know who does anyone in here know who Eddie Mabo is?" And straight away, like I got a lump in my throat, and I can only imagine what my face looked like, but I was just speechless. Is he asking everyone in the room who Eddie Mabo is? Eddie Mabo, in my culture, is a very significant person, and you put him up there with Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela and those types of people, and what he was able to do in Australian history for indigenous people. He's the one who really put indigenous Australians on the map, and what he was able to do. Overturn the land rights decision. And in my head, I was like, there's no way he's asking this right now. I thought this was going to be about LeBron James and the Miami Heat.

YouTube

Richard Jefferson: Players can get coaches fired in the NBA. If you allow that humility as the best player, it forces everyone else to fall in line. Pop knew. Pop would cuss Tim Duncan out first and then go down the line. Tim would just be like: “You’re right.” So what was I or anyone else going to say?  His leadership style was that he allowed himself to be coached the hardest. That will always impress me. Tim received that day in and day out because he wanted greatness for himself and he wanted greatness for his teammates. That’s true selflessness. 

New York Times

It is under this culture that Tuomas Iisalo and Tiago Splitter, who played under one of the best NBA coaches of all time in Gregg Popovich while at the San Antonio Spurs, thrived. “Iisalo is a basketball geek who likes to implement stuff from the outside, follows basketball, and tries to generate new ideas. Super creative,” said Thomas. “And Splitter is a very caring and warm person, just super nice to be around. He really connects well with the players on an interpersonal level.”

New York Times

But the Spurs offer, when it came, was too good to refuse: $7 an hour, minimum wage in Texas. “Dude, it was tough,” he says. But Saleh jumped at it and, over four years in San Antonio, was exposed to nearly every aspect of the organization. Most importantly, he had the chance to work alongside the likes of RC Buford and Gregg Popovich, the legendary management and coaching tandem that had led the Spurs to four of their five NBA titles. “RC Buford and Pop were amazing mentors of mine,” Saleh says. “They were phenomenal in my growth and development and then, after (four) years there, the Warriors ended up hitting me up. I didn’t think I was going to leave San Antonio, but 15 minutes in a room with (then Warriors president) Bob Myers sold me.”

SportsNet

“(Gregg Popovich) was definitely a pioneer in that regard,” Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr said prior to Thursday’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks. “And he was coaching a team that was making deep playoff runs, almost every year. And he recognized the toll on these guys as the game was speeding up. So I think Pop definitely kind of popularized the idea of the rest and the benefits.”

New York Times

The San Antonio Spurs have unveiled a banner celebrating Gregg Popovich. Fittingly, they did it quietly. The Spurs were playing their home opener on Sunday, when fans saw the new banner for the first time. There was no public ceremony when the banner was hoisted, a clear indicator that Popovich did not want any lavish celebration.

San Antonio Express-News

The new banner simply reads “Pop 1,390.” The 1,390 represents Popovich’s NBA-record regular-season win total with the team. It is a slightly different design than the others, which are shaped as jerseys. Popovich’s banner has five stars along the top — the Spurs won five NBA championships with him as coach — and the team logo.

San Antonio Express-News