Lessons From Pop

What Coach Gregg Popovich taught me over the last 26 years.

I have no clever introduction or hook for this piece.

I’ll just jump right into the fact that it stung like hell to watch Gregg Popovich say goodbye as the coach of the Spurs earlier this week.

He didn’t look like the imposing five-time champion and winningest coach of all time. Still recovering from a stroke, unable to move his left arm, with a weak voice. For support, he was bookended by his two signature lieutenants to either side of him, Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili. They’ve both been at all of his rehab sessions.

“Payback,” he called it. I call it a testament to his indelible legacy.

I don’t remember Pop not being the Spurs coach.

And I’m a 35-year-old man with three kids who started to love the Spurs when I was nine. And from 2003 on, I can vividly recall every single Spurs playoff game. And there were a lot of them. But none were without him on the sidelines.

Though I don’t have the emotional tie to Pop like I did some of the Spurs players like Tim, Manu or David Robinson, he has been a constant figure in my life just the same.

The DNA of the Spurs has been so constant that they oftentimes felt more like family than friends or even heroes. When figures or people are in your life for 25 years, you see almost everything. Their brilliance and their struggle, both humanity and nuance. Pop once said of Ginobili the sentence that I think sums up how we feel about people we love: "I went from trading him on the spot to wanting to cook him breakfast tomorrow. That's the truth."

Pop was capable of being both rude and kind. Surly and warm. Stubborn and innovative.

He always played the long game, maybe to the detriment of short-term success. Many times to my own frustration. Fans desire instant gratification. The Spurs absolutely could have won back-to-back championships at some point, but Pop always prioritized longevity. He sat Tim Duncan for the 2000 playoffs to save his knee for the 2014 Finals. He didn’t trade for Jason Kidd in 2004 so Tony Parker could win the 2007 Finals MVP. The stupidity and betrayal of the Dallas Mavericks trading Luka Doncic to the Lakers was the antithesis of what Pop built in San Antonio. Pop never robbed Peter to pay Paul.

And he was always courageous. And if you hate his politics or his platform, that’s not of interest to me. He spoke his mind. He believed in what he believed. I hope if there are things you or I believe in strongly enough to feel as though they are true and good, then we’d speak out on them.

Now, Pop is gone from the sidelines and a new era of Spurs basketball and many people’s fanhood, starts. When Tim Duncan retired, I referenced Archie Roosevelt’s singular quote about his father Theodore’s passing: “The old lion is dead.” It didn’t seem possible, but I am better for it.

Here are the most important lessons I learned from Pop, from 1999 to now.

ICYMI - I sent out an update on Friday about the future of Dance With Who Brung Ya