Gregg Popovich

Gregg Popovich
Born	January 28, 1949 (1949-01-28) (age 62) East Chicago, Indiana

Gregg Popovich (born January 28, 1949) is an American basketball coach, and is currently the head coach of the National Basketball Association's San Antonio Spurs. With the resignation of Jerry Sloan as head coach of the Utah Jazz on February 10, 2011, Popovich is the longest tenured coach in the NBA and also the longest among the Big Four sports leagues. He is often referred to as "Coach Pop" or simply "Pop."^[1][2]

From Indiana to the Air Force Academy

Popovich, whose father was of Serbian and mother of Croatian descent,^[3] was born in East Chicago, Indiana, went to High School at Merrillville High School and graduated in 1970 from the United States Air Force Academy. He played basketball for four seasons at the Academy, and in his senior year was the team captain and the leading scorer. He graduated with his bachelors degree in Soviet Studies, and he underwent Air Force intelligence gathering and processing training. He even considered a career with the Central Intelligence Agency.^[4]

Popovich next served his required five years of active duty in the United States Air Force, during which he toured eastern Europe and the Soviet Union with the U.S. Armed Forces Basketball Team. In 1972, he was selected as the Captain of the Armed Forces Team, which won the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) championship. This earned him an invitation to the 1972 U.S. Olympic Basketball Team trials.

Popovich returned to the Air Force Academy as an assistant coach in 1973 under head coach Hank Egan, a position he held for six years. Egan would later become an assistant coach under Popovich for the San Antonio Spurs, and later an assistant coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers under Mike Brown.

During his time with the coaching staff of the U.S. Air Force Academy, Popovich attended the University of Denver and earned his Masters Degree in Physical Education and Sports Sciences. In 1979, he was named the head basketball coach of Pomona-Pitzer's men's team.

During his time as head coach at Pomona-Pitzer, Popovich became a disciple and eventually a close friend of the University of Kansas head coach Larry Brown. Popovich would eventually decide to take off the 1985–1986 season at Pomona-Pitzer to become a volunteer assistant at the University of Kansas, where he could study directly under Brown. Popovich returned to Pomona-Pitzer and resumed his duties as head coach the next season.

On April 4, 2008, Popovich returned to the Air Force Academy. He was bestowed the Academy's award of Distinguished Graduate. Popovich said that the award possibly was the most meaningful he has received, which includes four NBA titles.^[5]

From D3 to the NBA

Following the 1987–1988 season, Popovich joined Larry Brown as the lead assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs. Popovich was even the best man in Brown's wedding in 1990, and the two would later coach against each other in the 2005 NBA Finals, with Brown coaching the Detroit Pistons. Popovich and the Spurs prevailed.

From 1988 to 1992, Popovich was the top assistant under Brown, before the entire staff [including R.C. Buford, Alvin Gentry and Ed Manning] was fired by owner Red McCombs. Popovich moved to the Golden State Warriors for a brief stint in 1992, serving as an assistant under Don Nelson and bringing with him Avery Johnson, who had been cut by the Spurs.

Back to San Antonio

In 1994, he returned to San Antonio as the General Manager and Vice President of Basketball Operations after a new ownership group had purchased the team. Popovich's first move was to sign Johnson to become the team's starting point guard. The two won an NBA title together in 1999, and Johnson, later head coach of the Dallas Mavericks, credits Popovich as being his biggest coaching influence.

Another one of Popovich's early moves in San Antonio was to trade Dennis Rodman to the Chicago Bulls for Will Perdue.

Criticism

Controversy surrounded Popovich during the 1996–97 NBA season when he fired Bob Hill 18 games into his third season as Spurs head coach after posting a combined 121–43 record in his first two seasons with the team. Popovich took over as head coach on the same day David Robinson joined the lineup for the first time that season due to an injury. Robinson quickly suffered another injury that forced him to miss the remainder of the season. Popovich's record that year as an interim coach for the Spurs was 17–47.

Popovich was highly criticized by Kevin O'Keeffe, a columnist for the San Antonio Express-News, following his decision to fire Hill. O'Keeffe argued that Hill's 3–16 start in 1996 had more to do with injuries to Robinson, Sean Elliott, Chuck Person, and Vinny Del Negro. O'Keeffe resigned from the San Antonio Express-News in 1999, just months before the Spurs won their first NBA title.

Popovich over the years has gained a reputation as a surly interviewee and a testy dealer with the media. In a 2007 interview with Craig Sager of TNT, Popovich ignored a question by Sager regarding a current game and outwardly questioned Sager's professionalism. In various in-game interviews, Popovich has been known for giving extremely short and sarcastic answers, as well as simplistic responses to reporters questions.

Building a dynasty

Following the 1996–1997 NBA season, the Spurs won the first overall pick in the NBA Lottery and drafted Tim Duncan out of Wake Forest University. The Spurs blossomed as Duncan teamed up with the 7'1" David Robinson to give them a "Twin Tower" offense and defense for several years.

In 2002, Popovich relinquished his position as the General Manager to R. C. Buford, who had served as the team's Head Scout. Popovich and Buford both got their starts in the NBA in 1988 as assistants on Larry Brown's coaching staff with the Spurs.

Popovich is known around the league for his expressive coaching style. "Pop" (as he is affectionately known to Spurs personnel and fans), is the most decorated coach in Spurs history, having led the team to their first championship in 1999, and to repeat performances in 2003, 2005, and 2007. Popovich was named NBA Coach of the Year in 2003.

He earned his 500th career victory on March 2, 2006, becoming the fourth fastest coach in NBA history to reach that milestone. He led the team to a 63–19 season in 2006, which set a new franchise season record. Because of his success in San Antonio, Popovich is now considered by some people to be a likely candidate for the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Popovich has also represented the USA in international play, serving on the coaching staff for the US national team in the 2002 FIBA World Championship (assisting George Karl),^[6] the 2003 FIBA America Men's Olympic Qualifying Tournament, and the 2004 Olympic Games.

Popovich won his 600th game as coach of the Spurs on January 12, 2007, with a win over the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Popovich won his 100th playoff game on May 19, 2008, on the New Orleans Hornets' home court. The win tied him for third place in all-time playoff coaching victories with his friend and mentor, Larry Brown.

Head coaching record

Legend
Regular season	G	Games coached	W	Games won	L	Games lost	W–L%	Win-loss %
Post season	PG	Games coached	PW	Games won	PL	Games lost	PW–L%	Win-loss %

Team	Year	G	W	L	W–L%	Finish	PG	PW	PL	PW–L%	Result
SAS	1996–97	64	17	47	.266	6th in Midwest	—	—	—	—	Missed Playoffs
SAS	1997–98	82	56	26	.683	2nd in Midwest	9	4	5	.444	Lost in Conf. Semifinals
SAS	1998–99	50	37	13	.740	1st in Midwest	17	15	2	.882	Won NBA Championship
SAS	1999–00	82	53	29	.646	2nd in Midwest	4	1	3	.250	Lost in First Round
SAS	2000–01	82	58	24	.707	1st in Midwest	13	7	6	.538	Lost in Conf. Finals
SAS	2001–02	82	58	24	.707	1st in Midwest	10	4	6	.400	Lost in Conf. Semifinals
SAS	2002–03	82	60	22	.732	1st in Midwest	24	16	8	.667	Won NBA Championship
SAS	2003–04	82	57	25	.695	2nd in Midwest	10	6	4	.600	Lost in Conf. Semifinals
SAS	2004–05	82	59	23	.720	1st in Southwest	23	16	7	.696	Won NBA Championship
SAS	2005–06	82	63	19	.768	1st in Southwest	13	7	6	.538	Lost in Conf. Semifinals
SAS	2006–07	82	58	24	.707	2nd in Southwest	20	16	4	.800	Won NBA Championship
SAS	2007–08	82	56	26	.683	2nd in Southwest	17	9	8	.529	Lost in Conf. Finals
SAS	2008–09	82	54	28	.659	1st in Southwest	5	1	4	.200	Lost in First Round
SAS	2009–10	82	50	32	.610	2nd in Southwest	10	4	6	.400	Lost in Conf. Semifinals
SAS	2010–11	82	61	21	.744	1st in Southwest	6	2	4	.333	Lost in First Round
Career		1180	797	383	.675		181	108	73	.597

Off the court

Popovich is actively involved in several charities and programs in San Antonio, such as the Spurs/Pizza Hut Drug Free Youth Basketball League and the San Antonio Food Bank. He has also been recognized as a noted wine enthusiast. He and his wife of 29 years, Erin, have two children, Micky and Jill.

Popovich is also a supporter of Vlade Divac's "You Can Too" campaign, designed to provide shelter to former Yugoslavian and African refugees.

References

1. ^ Wetzel, Dan (2007-06-14). "French connection". Yahoo! Sports. http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=dw-parker061507&prov=yhoo&type=lgns. Retrieved 2008-04-17. 
2. ^ "Devin Brown And Coach Pop Spread Message To Local Youth". NBA.com. 2004-02-01. http://www.nba.com/spurs/community/Devin_Brown_Spreads_Message_To-98180-70.html. Retrieved 2008-03-05. 
3. ^ http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-popovich061007
4. ^ Popovich is a man of mystery. National Post, June 15, 2007. http://www.nationalpost.com/scripts/story.html?id=67824e36-aaf6-4445-86a7-41440589441b&k=32409
5. ^ Gregg Popovich honored at Air Force Academy. 04 April 2008. KOAA. http://www.koaa.com/aaaa_sports_news/x9317948
6. ^ 2002 USA Basketball

External links

• NBA.com Profile
• Profile as a coach
• 'Pop' art by Adrian Wojnarowski (Yahoo! Sports)

Persondata
Name	Popovich, Gregg
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	January 28, 1949
Place of birth	East Chicago, Indiana
Date of death
Place of death