Thursday, August 13th, 2009...5:20 pm
Wojnarowski on Pitino and Popovich
Adrian Wojnarowski broke stories left and right this summer. Apparently he takes little vacations from news breaking to offer thoughtful commentary on already existing stories. Today Wojnarowski contributed a scathing critique of Rick Pitino, who comes off as an anti-Popovich in the piece.
And there is actual Popovich content in the article too. Future biographers take note:
The model for the elite pro coach is San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich, who has four NBA titles and no self-help books, no speaker’s fee. “It’s a player’s league,” Popovich once told me. “I think it’s very important for a coach to make sure that his players believe 100 percent – and not with lip service – that it’s about them. Coaches are going to do everything they can to create that environment for them. It’s not about creating an environment for us. It’s a privilege to be able to coach these guys.
“We make enough money.”
The rest of the article is full of wow, but not for the same reasons as the Pop quote.
Spurs fans sometimes debate who Pop’s eventual successor should be. For the sake of semantic sensitivity, let’s be careful to call that person, whomever he may be, the next Spurs coach. Let’s avoid the mistake of calling him Pop’s replacement.
8 Comments
August 13th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
and you’ve been writing and posting all over the place today, Tim. Thanks again for sharing. I love this place. You and Graydon are awesome.
August 13th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
Well said SpursfanSteve, This site great! Tim and Graydon are really doing a great, great job here…
As for Pops replacement? i’d say there is only one Pop so he can’t be replaced but i do believe the Spurs are gromming someone to be his successor when the time comes… (its too early right now)
Pop is such a class act (like Duncan, Manu, Tony among others) and his personality it reflects on the Spurs team. Go! Spurs! Go!
August 13th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
Wow, I’m guessing Wojnarowski isn’t the biggest Pitino fan.
August 13th, 2009 at 8:28 pm
I think Avery Johnson is going to be the replacement. I mean it only makes sense, he could have easily had another coaching job after the success he had in Dallas.
August 14th, 2009 at 8:30 am
I love Avery, but I don’t see him actually fitting in with the Spurs. In some respects, he’s perfect, but living in Dallas and watching him manage things was a bit difficult at times. He was even more against playing young guys than Pop has been, and the Mavs needed Devin Harris to be groomed and Avery didn’t handle it well. Then the Kidd trade and that blew up in everyone’s face.
Now the whole problem before he was fired from Dallas wasn’t his fault, there were a lot of whiners (and idiots) in the locker room, but he had some blame in it, being so unwilling to adapt to changing situations. Besides, Avery’s gonna sit out and take Cuban (potser)’s money as long as he can until the right job for him opens up. Is that with the Spurs? I don’t think he’ll want to wait another three years to come back, no matter how much he’s enjoying his family time and commentating.
August 14th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Don’t forget Timmy easily could have ended up playing for Pitino instead of Pop.
August 14th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Luckily the Celtics didn’t win the lottery and Timmy was smart enough to not sign with the Magic. If he was drafted by Boston or signed with Orlando I am afraid his career would look more like Kevin Garnett’s (Great player, crappy management, crappy teams, none or one title(s))
August 15th, 2009 at 5:48 pm
I thought Timmy was courted by the Celtics in 2000 under Rick Pitino.
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