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Gregg Popovich
Gregg Popovich
Gregg Popovich Born January 28, 1949 (1949-01-28) East Chicago, Indiana
Gregg Popovich (born January 28, 1949 in East Chicago, Indiana) is the head coach of the National Basketball Association’s San Antonio Spurs. He is often referred to, by players, media, and fans, as "Coach Pop" or simply "Pop."[1][2]
From Indiana to the Air Force Academy
Popovich, whose father was of Serbian descent,[3] 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 he is currently 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 PomonaPitzer, 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 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, the former head coach of the Dallas Mavericks, credits Popovich as being his biggest coaching influence.
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Another one of Popovich’s early moves in San Antonio was to trade Dennis Rodman to the Chicago Bulls for Will Perdue.
Gregg Popovich
to four NBA titles (1999, 2003, 2005, and 2007). 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 the 2003 NBA Finals, in 2005, and in 2007. Popovich received the honor of the NBA Coach of the Year Award in 2003, after leading the Spurs into the playoffs, en route to another championship. He also 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 coaching victories with his friend and mentor, Larry Brown.
Criticism
Controversy surrounded Popovich during the 1996-97 NBA season, when he fired Spurs head coach Bob Hill in mid-season, naming himself as Hill’s replacement. Popovich’s record that year as an interim coach for the Spurs was 17-47. Popovich was highly criticized by Kevin O’Keefe, a columnist for the San Antonio Express-News, following his decision to fire Hill. The Spurs won 122 games in Hill’s first two years as head coach of the Spurs. Hill’s 3-16 start in 1996 had more to do with injuries to David Robinson, Sean Elliott, Chuck Person, and Vinnie Del Negro. O’Keefe resigned from the San Antonio Express-News in 1999, just months before the Spurs won their first NBA title. Bob Hill also became a vocal critic of Popovich for the firing. Hill tried and failed to land several NBA coaching jobs before taking over at Fordham University from 1999-2002. The school fired him after suffering its worst season in 7 years. Hill joined the Seattle SuperSonics as an assistant coach in 2005 and replaced the fired Bob Weiss midway through that same season. He coached the Sonics in 2006-07 before being fired after compiling a 55-81 record. 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 appropriately simplistic responses to reporters’ obvious questions.
Coaching record
Legend Regular season Post season G PG Games coached Games coached W PW Games won Games won L PL Games lost Games lost
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 the Wake Forest University. The Spurs blossomed as Duncan teamed up with the 7’ 1" David Robinson to give the Spurs a "Twin Tower" offense and defense for several years. Popovich would lead the Spurs
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Team SAS SAS SAS SAS SAS SAS SAS SAS SAS SAS SAS SAS SAS Career Year G W 17 56 37 53 58 58 60 57 59 63 58 56 54 L 47 26 13 29 24 24 22 25 23 19 24 26 28 W–L% Finish .266 .683 .740 .646 .707 .707 .732 .695 .720 .768 .707 .683 .659 2nd in Midwest PG PW PL Result — 4 15 1 7 4 16 6 16 7 16 9 1
Gregg Popovich
1996–97 64 1997–98 82 1998–99 50 1999–00 82 2000–01 82 2001–02 82 2002–03 82 2003–04 82 2004–05 82 2005–06 82 2006–07 82 2007–08 82 2008–09 82
6th in Midwest — 9
— Missed Playoffs 5 2 3 6 6 8 4 7 6 4 8 4 Lost in Conf. Semifinals Won NBA Championship Lost in First Round Lost in Conf. Finals Lost in Conf. Semifinals Won NBA Championship Lost in Conf. Semifinals Won NBA Championship Lost in Conf. Semifinals Won NBA Championship Lost in Conf. Finals Lost in First Round
1st in Midwest 17 2nd in Midwest 4
1st in Midwest 13 1st in Midwest 10 1st in Midwest 24 2nd in Midwest 1st in Southwest 1st in Southwest 2nd in Southwest 2nd in Southwest 1st in Southwest 10 23 13 20 17 5
1016 686 330 .675
165 102 63
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. [3] [4]
[5]
References
[1] Wetzel, Dan (2007-06-14), "French connection", Yahoo! Sports, http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/ news?slug=dwparker061507&prov=yhoo&type=lgns, retrieved on 2008-04-17. [2] "Devin Brown And Coach Pop Spread Message To Local Youth", NBA.com, 2004-02-01, http://www.nba.com/spurs/
[6]
community/ Devin_Brown_Spreads_Message_To-98180-70.html, retrieved on 2008-03-05. http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/ story?id=3286552 Popovich is a man of mystery. National Post, June 15, 2007. http://www.nationalpost.com/scripts/ story.html?id=67824e36-aaf6-4445-86a7-414405894 Gregg Popovich honored at Air Force Academy. 04 April 2008. KOAA. http://www.koaa.com/aaaa_sports_news/ x9317948 2002 USA Basketball
External links
• NBA.com Profile • Profile as a coach • ’Pop’ art by Adrian Wojnarowski (Yahoo! Sports)
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gregg Popovich
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregg_Popovich" Categories: Living people, 1949 births, Serbian-Americans, Air Force Falcons men's basketball coaches, Air Force Falcons men's basketball players, People from East Chicago, Indiana, People from San Antonio, Texas, San Antonio Spurs coaches, United States Air Force Academy graduates This page was last modified on 21 May 2009, at 02:09 (UTC). All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details.) Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a U.S. registered 501(c)(3) taxdeductible nonprofit charity. Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers
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