By Jackie MacMullan | ESPN, 2025-05-02 23:54:00
由生成式人工智能翻译，译文内容可能不准确或不完整，以原文为准。
编者按：本文最初发表于2016年8月20日。 2025年5月2日，ESPN的Shams Charania报道称，格雷格·波波维奇将不再担任马刺队的主教练，而是全身心投入到篮球运营总裁的工作中。
圣安东尼奥——你渴望得到他秘制酱料的配方。你相信你已经发现了它的一些特殊成分：选秀外国球员、投射底角三分、强调防守、分享球权、让战战兢兢的场边记者难堪。
你想相信你已经抓住了这位沿着场边踱步的络腮胡教练的精髓——他是迈达斯、尤达大师，偶尔也会变成龇牙咧嘴的斗牛犬的混合体。
但事实上，你没有——你也永远不可能——因为你没有完全意识到他旅程中那些简单的真相：这个通过纪律和无私来要求别人尊重的男人，曾经是个急躁的空军学员，他曾大声地（并且不止一次）向他的教练抱怨自己的角色太小。他作为一名球员代表美国参加奥运会的努力，是如何被卑劣的政治手段扼杀的。他执教2008年梦之队的愿望，是如何被沟通不畅和阴谋诡计粉碎的。他是如何在竞争马刺队主教练的职位时，两次被拒之门外的。当他最终得到那份工作时，他又是如何利用周末时间在一个停车场里免费发放维也纳香肠，希望在一个痴迷足球的州里激起人们对篮球的兴趣的。
与曾和格雷格·波波维奇(Gregg Popovich)共事过的球员、教练和高管交谈，他们会说这些事件塑造了他。巨大的障碍。冷酷无情的真相。波波维奇现在可能超然于世俗之上，但他是一步一个脚印地实现了飞升。
如果你问波波维奇任何关于这些事的问题，他会打断你。他坚称，这些都没有你想象的那么重要。“我的失望与你提到的任何事情都无关，”他说。“它们与我们曾经有机会赢得总冠军，但最终没有赢的情况有关。”
听他这么说，他已经像蛇蜕皮一样摆脱了其他的失望。但不要搞错：格雷格·波波维奇被任命为2020年奥运会美国篮球队的主教练，是一次重要的个人胜利。在里约奥运会上表现平平之后，波波维奇将接过奥运篮球项目的大旗。尽管美国队如愿获得了金牌，但人们再次质疑美国队是否能在短时间内拼凑出一支超级巨星球队，并取得精英级别的成绩。波波维奇在圣安东尼奥的球队已经成为凝聚力的象征，他被誉为带领一帮自负的球星走向世界成功的自然之选。
“但如果你认为这对波波来说很容易，”前马刺队助教（现任新奥尔良主教练）阿尔文·金特里(Alvin Gentry)说，“那你就不了解他的故事。”
他的昵称是 Popo。他是印第安纳州梅里尔维尔的一名好斗的、腿很长的后起之秀后卫，留着短短的、油光锃亮的棕色头发，长着一双孩子气的耳朵。他迫不及待地想要变得优秀。
这与空军学院的结构并不协调，学院的设计初衷是让你等待轮到自己。前队友戴夫·卡帕斯卡(Dave Kapaska)将空军学院比作一个“领导力实验室”。
“在第一年，你必须学会如何成为一名追随者，”卡帕斯卡说。“在那之后，你才能学会如何成为一名优秀的领导者。”领导力对格雷格·波波维奇来说轻而易举。他天生就具有这种性格。但追随他人？ 这 却是一个挑战。他为什么要排在那些他确信不如自己的人后面呢？
前空军助理教练汉克·伊根(Hank Egan)说，这就是Popo无法调和的困境。“他和大多数青少年一样，”伊根说，他曾在大一和大二时执教过波波维奇。“当事情不如他意时，他就是一个小霸王。”
波波维奇不断地向伊根提出各种理由，说明他为什么应该为传奇教练鲍勃·斯皮尔(Bob Spear)效力于校队，而不是在青年队。伊根说：“他每天都让我知道我们犯了一个大错。”
于是，他开始证明这一点。Popo高中时是一名内线球员，但在他为学院效力时，他必须学会面框并控球。
“人们总是问我，‘他真的那么爱发脾气吗？’ 我告诉他们，‘是的，但他也很友善。’ 这是真实的，也是真诚的。他所做的一切都与真相有关。”
前马刺队助理教练迈克·布登霍尔泽(Mike Budenholzer)
学员们几乎没有空闲时间，尤其是新生，但伊根说，波波维奇几乎每天晚上都会去体育馆，用一根橡皮筋绑住双腿进行训练，以提高他的平衡能力。他会关掉灯，在黑暗中练习运球。波波维奇班级的同学，也是校队教练的儿子伯特·斯皮尔(Bert Spear)说，他以自己的防守和强硬而自豪。
如果队友的注意力稍有动摇，Popo就会斥责他们。他并不害怕挑战更大、更强的对手。“他就是那种如果有人看他的眼神不对，他就会告诉他们，‘我会揍你屁股’的人，”斯皮尔说。
当乔·克雷姆博格(Joe Kreimborg)来到学院时，Popo已经是一名高年级学生了。他的一些同龄人喜欢斥责新生，他们的威胁性侮辱几乎要贴到新生颤抖的脸上，但克雷姆博格回忆说，Popo更感兴趣的是让新来的孩子们发笑。
他喜欢与球队训练师吉姆·康博伊(Jim Conboy)斗嘴，后者是一位受人爱戴的脾气古怪的人，他粗鲁的举止掩盖了他对待运动员时的友善。康博伊以保守著称，Popo喜欢通过让自己坐在训练台上并宣布“如果他们允许同性恋者参军，那不是很好吗？”来戏弄他。在后来的几年里，当波波维奇成为空军学院的助理教练时，他与康博伊在客场比赛中同住一间房，这是一个有趣的发展，因为那时Popo正在和康博伊的女儿艾琳约会，艾琳后来成为了他的妻子。
随着时间的推移，波波维奇成为了斯皮尔教练最喜欢的球员，他在最后一个赛季被任命为队长，并以场均14.3分与他人分享了得分王的荣誉。斯皮尔与迪恩·史密斯关系密切，每年夏天都会把他的妻子和四个儿子塞进他的乡村绅士车里，然后开车去史密斯的篮球训练营。有一年夏天，斯皮尔一家被介绍给史密斯的一名新球员拉里·布朗(Larry Brown)，他是校园里最酷的人，穿着没有袜子的乐福鞋。
格雷格·波波维奇于1970年毕业 ，获得了苏联研究的学位，并加入了美国武装部队篮球队，在东欧和苏联巡回演出，用他流利的俄语向他的教练汇报有用的关键词。
他的球队在1972年赢得了AAU锦标赛冠军，当他回到美国时，他得知奥运会篮球选拔赛将在学院举行。杰克·赫伦(Jack Herron Jr.)被任命为1972年美国奥运会选拔委员会成员，他负责确保波波维奇收到邀请。
赫伦的父亲杰克·赫伦(Jack Herron Sr.)曾在俄克拉荷马农工大学（后来的俄克拉荷马州立大学）为奥运会教练汉克·伊巴(Hank Iba)效力，他刚刚担任空军篮球助理教练和招募协调员一年。波波维奇的海外表现赢得了极高的评价，但这些都没有经过电视转播或公开宣传。
“仅仅让他参加选拔赛就是一场战斗，”赫伦说。当时，奥运代表队是从代表AAU、NAIA、专科院校、武装部队以及NCAA的大学和学院部门的球员中选拔出来的。球员被分成10到12人一组，并分配一名教练。波波维奇为印第安纳教练鲍勃·奈特(Bobby Knight)效力；他的队友之一是前锋鲍比·琼斯(Bobby Jones)。
琼斯记得波波维奇在他的小组里，但他不记得波波维奇的比赛细节了，尽管波波维奇以57.7%的投篮命中率领先所有球员。但琼斯清楚地记得，在选拔赛的最后一场训练赛之前，奈特告诉小组，他们中只有两个人有机会进入最终的奥运阵容，其他人应该把球传给他们，以增加他们的机会。
“这两个人是凯文·乔伊斯(Kevin Joyce)和我，”琼斯说。“我从未听过教练如此诚实。我不知道格雷格和其他球员对此有何看法。”
赫伦怀疑，波波维奇比赛的微妙之处在其他候选人中被忽视了，他们都在拼命投篮，试图得分。“格雷格本可以更爱表现，”赫伦说，“但他按照伊巴先生告诉他的方式打球。这最终可能伤害了他。”
赫伦说，他参加了每一次奥运选拔委员会会议，在每一次会议上，波波维奇都位列前14-16名球员之列。但当委员会开始对最终名单进行投票时，一些之前从未露面的成员突然出现了。当赫伦问他们为什么来时，他们告诉他：“我们来这里是为了让我们的球员进入球队。”
赫伦说，这个过程很快就演变成了各派为争夺代表权而战，而不是选择最优秀的球员。当最终名单公布时，波波维奇被排除在外。
“我对这件事感到恼火已经快50年了，”赫伦说。“格雷格应该进入那支球队。”
拉里·布朗被伊巴邀请参加选拔赛，他对波波维奇的勇气印象深刻，以至于他在当年秋天邀请他参加他在丹佛的ABA球队的试训（波波维奇是最后一批被裁掉的球员之一）。
“波普非常强硬和顽强，就像[骑士后卫马修]德拉维多瓦一样，尽管运动能力更强一些，”布朗说。“但那里有很多有天赋的球员。”
道格·科林斯(Doug Collins)是参加球队试训的四位未来的NBA教练之一——波波维奇、迈克·德安东尼(Mike D’Antoni)和乔治·卡尔(George Karl)是另外三位——他同意选拔过程是政治性的。科林斯说，他觉得自己是训练营中最好的后卫之一，但当他遇到正在为凯尔特人队考察选拔赛的教练汤米·海因索恩(Tommy Heinsohn)时，海因索恩告诉他：“他们可能不会选你。其中涉及政治因素。你最好找人为你争取。” 科林斯打电话给了他在伊利诺伊州立大学的教练威尔·罗宾逊(Will Robinson)，后者立即飞往科罗拉多，开始为他争取。（科林斯进入了球队）。
伊根说，波波维奇因为没有进入球队而感到沮丧和愤怒，并哀叹对防守端的重视不够。“他正在与所有这些大牌大学球员竞争，”伊根说。“这是一场艰苦的战斗。当时我没有想到，但现在回想起来，这给了他真正的动力，让他在这项运动中有所作为。他会被那些没有名气的渴望成功的球员所吸引是有原因的。”
其中一名球员，防守悍将布鲁斯·鲍文(Bruce Bowen)，在2012年被波波维奇退役了他的球衣，尽管他的职业生涯场均得分略高于6分。
在经历奥运会44年后，当被问及这个过程时，波波维奇怒不可遏。“我从未谈论过这件事，”他说。“他们选择了参加奥运会的合适人选。我一直都是这么说的。”
“这是一次沉重的打击，”他在马刺队的密友和同事R.C. 布福德(R.C. Buford)说。“他从未忘记。”
当波波维奇在1979年接受 三级联赛波莫纳-皮策学院的主教练职位时，他欣然沉浸在该学校的学术文化中。但当他决定在1986年休假时（这是该学校的常见做法），波波维奇联系了斯皮尔教练，后者安排波波维奇在北卡罗来纳大学在迪恩·史密斯(Dean Smith)的指导下待三个月——并在堪萨斯大学在酷酷的、不穿袜子的拉里·布朗(Larry Brown)的指导下待三个月，拉里·布朗当时已经成为堪萨斯大学的主教练。
布朗组建了一支充满未来篮球思想的教练团队，其中包括金特里、比尔·贝诺(Bill Bayno)、未来的堪萨斯大学教练比尔·塞尔夫(Bill Self)和一个名叫R.C. 布福德的人。
波波维奇和布福德是一对奇怪的组合。罗伯特·坎特伯雷·布福德(Robert Canterbury Buford)来自一个富裕的家庭，戴着名牌太阳镜，开着宝马，住在劳伦斯最 exclusive 的高尔夫球场的一间公寓里。“他拥有一栋比拉里·布朗更好的房子，”金特里说。
波波维奇每天从堪萨斯城通勤到劳伦斯，在那里他睡在他空军朋友迈克·蒂森(Mike Thiesen)的沙发上。波波维奇开着一辆旧的四门城镇汽车，“车身太长了，都放不进车库，”布福德说。在深夜的比赛之后或者当天气恶劣时，波波维奇会住在R.C.的家里。
尽管波波维奇和布福德有着不同的性格——布福德是一个内向的人，波波维奇是一个喜欢耍嘴皮子的人——但两人在跳出框框思考方面有着共同的兴趣。他们花了几个小时交流对比赛策略和球员管理哲学的看法。
“由于拉里的好奇心，这每天都是篮球博士学位课程，这影响了我们所有人，”布福德说。当喜欢流浪的布朗在1988年接受了马刺队的主教练职位时，他邀请布福德和波波维奇加入他的教练组。当时，波波维奇只有两件运动外套——一件来自学院，另一件是人字纹运动外套，上面有肘部补丁。在他们的第一场比赛中，波波维奇选择了人字纹运动外套，但忘记撕掉干洗店在纽扣上包的锡箔纸。
“拉里更关心的是撕掉波波维奇外套上的锡箔纸，而不是执教比赛，”布福德现在笑着说。“这就是我们为NBA做准备的方式。”
布朗说，波波维奇在圣安东尼奥的公寓实际上是空空如也的。他只有一张床、一张沙发和一把椅子。“他什么都没有，”布朗说。波波维奇并不在乎。他专注于尽可能多地从富有魅力的布朗那里学习。布朗发现，如果他带着他的教练组慢跑，他们会放松并分享他们的想法。波波维奇不需要这种刺激，他用新的防守方案或创造性的边线球战术轰炸布朗。主教练采纳了他的一些助手的想法，但他真正想从波普和R.C.那里得到的是为他提供一些残酷的真相。
布福德说，布朗害怕放弃球员，他经常让他的两个助手为他做脏活。布福德回忆说，他不得不在圣诞节早晨告诉雷吉·威廉姆斯(Reggie Williams)他将被裁掉。波波维奇抽到了短签，不得不在1991年12月艾弗里·约翰逊(Avery Johnson)从大卫·罗宾逊(David Robinson)的婚礼上担任伴郎回来后不久就放弃了他。
约翰逊说，波普打电话告诉他，布朗教练就站在他旁边。“波普说，‘坏消息是我们必须裁掉你，’”约翰逊说。“‘好消息是你属于这个联盟，会有人签下你的。’” 一个小时后，约翰逊的公寓大楼的保安告诉他波波维奇在楼下。约翰逊的妻子抗议说——“我现在不想见到波普，”她怒气冲冲地说——但约翰逊让他上来了。“波普很沮丧，”他说。“他知道我付出了努力。”
在1991-92 NBA赛季进行了38场比赛后，当时布福德和波普仍然是马刺队的助理教练，布朗突然离开了球队。老板雷德·麦库姆斯(Red McCombs)告诉记者，在球队以21胜17负开局后，布朗要求被解雇。布福德希望他的朋友波普能被任命为临时教练，但总经理鲍勃·巴斯(Bob Bass)给了自己这个头衔，执教了剩余的44场比赛。
波普和布福德留了下来，但当UNLV教练杰里·塔卡尼安(Jerry Tarkanian)在那个赛季的最后几天漫步到球队的巴士上时，他们知道他们的日子屈指可数了。当被问及在1992-93赛季雇用塔卡尼安而不是他自己这一不幸的决定时，波普说：“嗯，当他们为我提供一份电影工作时，这很有趣。”
塔卡尼安只坚持了29场比赛就被解雇了。那时，波波维奇早已离开了。“但是[马刺队老板]雷德·麦库姆斯做出了正确的决定，”波普补充道。“我还没准备好。”
如果波普得到了那份工作，他永远不会去金州勇士队教练唐·尼尔森(Don Nelson)手下工作，唐·尼尔森是一位非传统的篮球思想家，也是控球前锋的先驱，他经常推出一个三后卫阵容，远早于“小球”一词的出现。他通过将他的大个子球员拉离篮筐并拉开空间来创造错位，并且是第一个实施“砍鲨战术”的人。
尼尔森在尼尔森和他的明星球员克里斯·韦伯(Chris Webber)几乎不说话的时候雇用了波波维奇，所以波波维奇成为了中间人，他的工作是告诉韦伯关于他自己的残酷真相。“波普很棒，”尼尔森说。“他会告诉克里斯，‘你太傻了。你不明白。你必须成熟起来。’ 可惜他[韦伯]没有听。他直到35岁才做到，那时对我们来说已经太晚了。”
艾弗里·约翰逊在90年代初与波波维奇重聚，当时波普最终被提升为主教练。在马刺队被誉为“模范球队”之前很久，约翰逊和波波维奇就跋涉到德克萨斯州各地的杂货店，在停车场里竖起便携式篮球架，并烹制热狗，以吸引孩子们出来打篮球。
约翰逊记得波波维奇有一天下午把他拉进放映室，给他看一个来自阿根廷的瘦骨嶙峋的高中生，他有着鹰钩鼻。“看到这个孩子了吗？” 波普兴奋地告诉约翰逊。“我们将选他，并将他藏在海外一段时间。”
他是马努·吉诺比利(Manu Ginobili)。
格雷格·波波维奇只 对说真话的人感兴趣。
当帕蒂·米尔斯(Patty Mills)在2012年与马刺队签约时，波波维奇立即告诉他他太胖了。然后他走出去告诉当地媒体同样的事情。“他确实告诉过你们，所以我想我不能撒谎，”米尔斯说。公众的鞭笞促使米尔斯进入了他年轻时最好的状态，并发展成为一名可靠的圣安东尼奥替补球员。
2014年6月3日，在对阵迈阿密热火队的NBA总决赛第一场比赛之前，波波维奇将球队叫进了放映室。米尔斯抬起头，希望看到德怀恩·韦德(Dwyane Wade)的录像；相反，埃迪·马博(Eddie Mabo)的脸闪现在屏幕上，埃迪·马博是一位不知疲倦地工作以争取澳大利亚土著居民权利得到承认的澳大利亚活动家。米尔斯是一位澳大利亚土著居民，他感动得流下了眼泪。
“波普在这种环境下提出这个问题对我来说太令人震惊了，”米尔斯说。“我甚至不知道波普知道埃迪·马博是谁。”
艾弗里·约翰逊的真相时刻发生在1998年，当时波普在全队面前宣布约翰逊是“他见过的最糟糕的防守球员”。 波普播放了约翰逊放弃长距离防守篮板的录像片段，以及他不愿意扑向松散球的片段。当他的控球后卫闷闷不乐时，波波维奇冷静地宣布：“如果你的防守没有提高，我们哪里也去不了。” 一年后，约翰逊和波普赢得了1999年的总冠军。
前马刺队助理教练蒙蒂·威廉姆斯(Monty Williams)在去年2月10日的一场悲惨车祸中失去了他的妻子英格丽(Ingrid)，他不得不应对自己的悲痛，如何与篮球保持联系，以及如何安慰他的五个年幼的孩子，他们的母亲的去世让他们可以理解地感到崩溃。波波维奇最近向威廉姆斯发出了邀请，威廉姆斯在2004-2005赛季只在圣安东尼奥担任了一个赛季的教练组实习生：以你想要的任何身份加入马刺队，并根据需要来来去去。
当他的前助手迈克·布朗(Mike Brown)在2002年与他的妻子分居时，他的两个年幼的儿子和她一起搬到了科罗拉多州。布朗的姐姐带着孩子们来圣安东尼奥做客，但是当要带他们回到机场时，布朗的孩子们泪流满面。布朗一直在为即将到来的对阵芝加哥队的客场比赛做准备工作，他打电话给波波维奇，告诉他他要晚到几分钟。
“你最好不要来，”波波维奇吼道。
“不，没关系，我姐姐和他们在一起，”布朗回答说。
“如果你来到这架飞机上，”波波维奇咆哮道，“你就会被解雇。” 然后他挂断了电话。
布朗留下来，和他的儿子们多待了两天。当波波维奇从客场之旅回来时，他严厉地训斥了一顿关于优先事项的问题。要传达的信息是：家庭第一，篮球第二。
当金特里得到他的第一份主教练工作时，波普在一个月后打电话给他，向他保证所有的教练都讨厌裁判，但他需要更好地控制自己的情绪。当长期助理迈克·布登霍尔泽(Mike Budenholzer)得到亚特兰大老鹰队的工作时，波普建议他“对你的表情做些改变。它投射出了错误的形象。”
作为一个渴望成功的马刺队助理教练，布登霍尔泽经常用新的想法轰炸波波维奇。“波普会经常告诉我闭嘴，”布登霍尔泽说。“他会说，‘巴德，别说了，我听够了。’ 人们总是问我，‘他真的那么爱发脾气吗？’ 我告诉他们，‘是的，但他也很友善。’ 这是真实的，也是真诚的。他所做的一切都与真相有关。”
有时，真相是令人心碎的，就像2014年总决赛第六场对阵迈阿密热火队的比赛中，圣安东尼奥队在还剩28秒时领先5分，保安人员推出绳索，以防止庆祝的马刺队球迷涌入球场。然后马刺队输掉了比赛。在赛后新闻发布会上，当被问及他对球队说了什么时，波波维奇宣布：“我告诉他们我爱他们。”
波波维奇已经减掉了 37磅。 他将在2020年年满70岁，那一年他实际上将执教美国奥运篮球队，他决心像他的球员一样强壮。
所以他每天都会跳上跑步机，挥舞着他的手臂，布福德说，“像一个疯狂的塞尔维亚人。” （事实上，波波维奇一半是塞尔维亚人，一半是克罗地亚人）。他做核心训练，并以灵巧和决心甩动那些沉重的、粗大的训练绳。“我能比我们一半的球员做得更好，”他吹嘘道。
事实上，波波维奇被授予奥运会教练职位是一个小小的奇迹。 在2004年，他协助布朗执教了2004年奥运代表队，该队跌跌撞撞地获得了铜牌——金特里说，这场灾难对于他的朋友们来说是“最低谷”。
布福德说，就像1972年的选拔过程存在缺陷一样，“我可以告诉你，2004年的选拔过程同样糟糕，如果不是更糟的话。”
布朗说，2004年的球队在比赛前只训练了十几次。 由于卡尔·马龙(Karl Malone)（家人去世）和科比·布莱恩特(Kobe Bryant)（性侵犯指控）退出了比赛，这让他们拥有一支年轻且缺乏经验的核心队伍。 他的球员们在土耳其参加一场表演赛时，被附近一家酒店的爆炸事件吓坏了。 没有训练时间，几乎没有机会培养任何化学反应。
“我们没有机会组建一支球队，”布朗说。“我们把这些孩子们扔进了一个糟糕的环境中。 波普和我一直在谈论这件事。 我问他，‘我还能做得更好吗？’ 我最讨厌的是我认为这让波普失去了获得这份工作的机会。”
事实上，美国篮球老板杰里·科兰杰洛(Jerry Colangelo)在电话面试和从未实现的面对面会议后，选择了迈克·克日泽夫斯基(Mike Krzyzewksi)来领导2008年“救赎之队”，跳过了波波维奇——这种背信弃义的行为，让波波维奇无法调和，他的一生都建立在做一个言出必行的人的基础上。 科兰杰洛关于这一过程的公开评论激怒了波波维奇，并导致了一种冰冷的关系，许多人认为这种关系永远无法修复。 但当科兰杰洛在去年春天联系波波维奇，以评估他对接替K教练的职位是否感兴趣时，波普抓住了这个机会，他的爱国主义超越了他之前怀有的任何不良情绪。
与此同时，马刺队签下了令人垂涎的自由球员拉马库斯·阿尔德里奇(LaMarcus Aldridge)，创造了球队历史上最好的战绩，并继续在动态中重启他们的核心球员。
这并不意味着这个赛季没有残酷的真相。 去年3月19日，在一场备受期待的常规赛中，波波维奇做出了艰难的决定，用鲍里斯·迪奥(Boris Diaw)取代蒂姆·邓肯(Tim Duncan)在对阵卫冕冠军金州勇士队的比赛中的首发位置。 邓肯只打了8分钟。
“我知道这对蒂姆来说很艰难，”布福德说。“但他和波普已经在那段关系中投入了足够的时间，使他们能够真实和诚实地面对这些困难的情况。 这使得波普能够努力地执教球员，并告诉他们他所看到的真相，然后敞开心扉倾听他们所看到的真相。”
所以让大众相信波波维奇是一个冷酷无情的人，他喜欢羞辱那些场边记者。 有时，感知是掩盖现实的理想外衣。 “人们决定他们认为在你身上看到了什么，”波波维奇说。 “这就像参加政治竞选一样。 你阅读该党的议程，人们只是一遍又一遍地重复它——就像我在比赛结束时做的那些事一样。 我只是在享受它。”
波普解释说，球队的连续性是他们成功的原因。 老板彼得·霍尔特(Peter Holt)、波波维奇和布福德在22年里无条件地支持着彼此。 “有了这种熟悉，就没有责备，”波普说。 “一切都是合作的，一切都是参与的，因此多年来，这使我们能够做出一些决定，即使这些决定不是最伟大的，我们也可以承受，因为没有责备。 所以我们继续前进。
“许多组织，由于某种原因，没有花时间达到这一点。 所以我们非常幸运。 “所以说，‘我们将成为马刺队？’ 没有这样的事情。 这并不是说我们是最伟大的。 这只是我们拥有的。 那么，现在每个人都要成为勇士队了吗？ 他们不能。”
马刺队将继续让他们的妻子乘坐球队的飞机旅行。 他们几乎（如果不是从来没有）进行训练。 他们将努力发掘下一个运动科学进步，并且已经建造了一个拥有顶级音响效果的顶级训练设施。 他们的教练将继续要求卓越，当他在2016年季后赛首轮对阵孟菲斯队的比赛中，在科怀·伦纳德(Kawhi Leonard)在被评为连续第二个赛季的最佳防守球员之前几个小时，在比赛还剩很长时间时，因为没有对文斯·卡特(Vince Carter)进行包夹而斥责他时，没有人会眨眼。 “我希望被执教，”科怀当时说。 “我感谢他。”
马刺队历史上最好的常规赛以在季后赛中以六场比赛输给雷霆队而告终。 对一些人来说，马刺队作为“模范球队”的称号正处于危险之中，因为许多NBA老板渴望立竿见影的效果。
“波普和R.C.是烤箱，而不是微波炉，”约翰逊说。“当他们知道这是值得的，他们可以等待。”
因此，马刺队将继续坚持原来的方向。 而且，最重要的是，他们将相信格雷格·波波维奇的真相，这位新晋的奥运大师，他有着斗牛犬般的咆哮，但最终从来没有真正咬人。
点击查看原文：Introducing Team USA's next coach: Gregg Popovich
Introducing Team USA’s next coach: Gregg Popovich
Editor’s note: This piece was originally published on August 20, 2016. On May 2, 2025, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that Gregg Popovich will no longer be head coach of the Spurs and is transitioning full-time to team president of basketball operations.
SAN ANTONIO – You crave the recipe of his secret sauce. You believe you’ve identified some of its special ingredients: draft foreign players, shoot corner 3s, emphasize defense, share the ball, victimize trembling sideline reporters.
You’d like to believe you’ve captured the essence of the bearded coach stomping along the sideline – a blend of Midas, Yoda and occasionally a teeth-baring pit bull.
But, in truth, you haven’t – you never could – because you don’t fully realize the simple truths of his journey: how the man who demands respect through discipline and selflessness was once an impatient Air Force cadet who complained vociferously (and repeatedly) to his coach about a larger role. How his bid to represent the United States in the Olympic Games as a player was squashed by petty politics. How his wish to coach the 2008 Dream Team was crushed by miscommunication and subterfuge. How he was passed over – twice – for the very Spurs job he now holds. How when he finally got that job, he spent his weekends passing out free wieners in a parking lot hoping to generate basketball interest in a football-crazed state.
Talk to players, coaches and executives who have worked with Gregg Popovich, and they’ll say these are the events that shaped him. Tremendous obstacles. Cold, hard truths. Popovich may float above the fray now, but he earned that ascent – one gritty step at a time.
Ask Popovich about any of this and he’ll cut you off. None of it, he insists, resonates as much as you think it does. "My disappointments aren’t anything to do with what you mention,‘’ he says. "They have to do with times we had opportunities to win a championship, and we didn’t.‘’
To hear him tell it, he has shed those other disappointments like old snakeskin. But make no mistake: Gregg Popovich’s appointment as coach of the USA basketball team for the 2020 Olympics is a significant personal triumph. Popovich will take the reins of the Olympic basketball program in the wake of an uninspiring showing in Rio that, while producing the expected gold medal, raised questions anew about the United States’ ability to cobble together a collection of superstars on short notice and implement elite results. Popovich, whose teams in San Antonio have come to symbolize cohesion, has been lauded as the natural choice to lead a meld of substantial egos on the path to world success.
"But if you think this has all been easy for Pop,‘’ says former Spurs assistant (and current New Orleans head coach) Alvin Gentry, “then you don’t know his story.”
HIS NICKNAME WAS Popo. He was an aggressive, long-legged upstart guard from Merrillville, Indiana, with short, slick brown hair and boyish ears. And he was in a hurry to be good.
That didn’t jibe with the Air Force Academy’s structure, which was designed to make you wait your turn. Former teammate Dave Kapaska likened the Academy to a “leadership lab.”
"In the first year you have to learn how to be a follower,‘’ Kapaska says. "After that, you learn how to be a good leader.‘’ Leadership came easily to Gregg Popovich. He was blessed with one of those personalities. But following others? That was a challenge. Why should he fall in line behind those he was certain weren’t nearly as good as him?
Former Air Force assistant coach Hank Egan says that’s the quandary Popo couldn’t reconcile. "He was like most teenagers,‘’ says Egan, who coached Popovich as a freshman and sophomore at the Academy. “He was a brat when things didn’t go his way.”
Popovich pestered Egan repeatedly with reasons why he should be playing on the varsity for the legendary coach Bob Spear, instead of on junior varsity. "He let me know every day we were making a big mistake,‘’ Egan says.
And so he set out to prove it. Popo had been a post player in high school, but when he played for the Academy he had to learn to face the basket and handle the ball.
“People ask me all the time, ‘Is he really that grumpy?’ I tell them, ‘Yes, but he’s also that incredibly nice.’ It’s real and it’s genuine. He’s all about the truth.”
Former Spurs assistant coach Mike Budenholzer
Cadets have precious little spare time, especially as freshmen, but, Egan says, Popovich migrated to the gym nearly every night, conducting drills with a rubber band around his legs to improve his balance. He’d turn out the lights and practice dribbling in the dark. He prided himself on defense and his toughness, says Bert Spear, the varsity coach’s son who was a teammate in Popovich’s class.
Popo chastised his teammates if their attention wavered. He wasn’t afraid to take on bigger, stronger opponents. "He was the kind of guy that, if they looked at him wrong, he’d tell them, ‘I’m gonna kick your ass,’ " Spear says.
By the time Joe Kreimborg arrived at the Academy, Popo was already an upperclassman. Some of his peers delighted in berating the freshmen, their menacing insults delivered an inch from the cadets’ quivering faces, but, Kreimborg recalls, Popo was far more interested in making the new kids laugh.
He loved sparring with the team trainer Jim Conboy, a beloved curmudgeon whose gruff demeanor belied the kindness with which he treated his athletes. Conboy was notoriously conservative and Popo delighted in ribbing him by plopping himself on the training table and declaring, “Wouldn’t it be great if they allowed gays in the military?” In later years, when Popovich became an assistant coach at Air Force, he roomed with Conboy on the road, an interesting development since, by then, Popo was dating Conboy’s daughter Erin, who later became his wife.
Over time, Popovich became a favorite of coach Spear, who named him captain in his final season, where he shared top scoring honors with 14.3 points a game. Spear chummed around with Dean Smith and every summer would pile his wife and four sons into his Country Squire and drive down to Smith’s basketball camp. One summer the Spears family was introduced to one of Smith’s new players, Larry Brown, the coolest guy on campus who wore loafers without any socks.
GREGG POPOVICH GRADUATED with a degree in Soviet Studies in 1970 and joined the U.S. Armed Forces basketball team, touring Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, using his fluent Russian to brief his coach on helpful buzzwords.
His team won the AAU championship in 1972, and when he returned to the U.S., he learned the Olympic basketball trials would be held at the Academy. Jack Herron Jr., who was named to the 1972 U.S. Olympic selection committee, made it his charge to make certain Popovich received an invitation.
Herron, whose father Jack Sr. played for Olympic coach Hank Iba at Oklahoma A&M (later Oklahoma State), had just spent a year as an Air Force basketball assistant and recruiting coordinator. Popovich had earned rave reviews for his overseas performances, but they were neither televised nor publicized.
"It was a fight just to get him there,‘’ says Herron. Back then the Olympic team was selected from a pool of players representing AAU, the NAIA, junior colleges, the Armed Forces, and both the university and college divisions of the NCAA. Players were split into groups of 10 to 12 and assigned a coach. Popovich played for Indiana coach Bobby Knight; one of his teammates was forward Bobby Jones.
Jones remembers that Popovich was in his group but could not recall particulars of his game, even though Popovich led all players with a .577 shooting percentage. What Jones recalls with clarity, though, was how, before the last scrimmage of the trials, Knight informed the group that only two of them had a shot at making the final Olympic squad and the rest should pass them the ball to enhance their chances.
"The two guys were Kevin Joyce and me,‘’ says Jones. "I had never heard a coach be so honest. I don’t know how Gregg and the other players felt about it.‘’
Herron suspects the subtleties of Popovich’s game were lost among the other candidates who were jacking up shots and looking to put points on the board. "Gregg could have been more showy,‘’ Herron says, "but he played the way Mr. Iba told him to play. It probably hurt him in the end.‘’
Herron says he attended every single Olympic selection committee meeting and that Popovich was among the top 14-16 players in each of those discussions. But as the committee began to vote on the final roster, members who hadn’t showed up at any of the previous meetings suddenly surfaced. When Herron asked why they were there, he says they told him, "We’re here to get our guys on the team.‘’
The process, Herron says, quickly dissolved into factions fighting for representation instead of choosing the top performers. When the final roster was announced, Popovich was left off.
"I’ve been aggravated about this for almost 50 years,‘’ Herron says. “Gregg belonged on that team.”
Larry Brown was invited by Iba to attend the tryouts and was suitably impressed by Popovich’s moxie, so much so that he invited him to try out for his ABA team in Denver later that fall (Popovich was among the final cuts).
“Pop was real tough and tenacious, like [Cavs guard Matthew] Dellavedova, although a little more athletic,” Brown says. “But there were so many talented players there.”
Doug Collins, one of four future NBA coaches who tried out for the team – Popovich, Mike D’Antoni and George Karl were the others – concurs that the selection process was political. Collins says he felt he was one of the best guards in camp, but when he bumped into coach Tommy Heinsohn, who was scouting the trials for the Celtics, Heinsohn told him, "They may not pick you. There is politics involved. You better get someone to fight for you.‘’ Collins called Will Robinson, his coach at Illinois State, who immediately hopped a plane to Colorado and began stumping for him. (Collins made the team).
Egan says Popovich, who did not enlist anyone to champion his cause, was frustrated and angry that he was left off the team and lamented the lack of emphasis on the defensive side of the ball. "He was battling with all these big name college players,‘’ Egan says. "It was an uphill battle. I didn’t think of it at the time, but looking back, it gave him real motivation to be something in this game. And there’s a reason he is attracted to hungry players who don’t have big names.‘’
One such player, defensive whiz Bruce Bowen, had his number retired in 2012 by Popovich, in spite of a career average of just over six points a game.
Forty-four years after his Olympic experience, Popovich bristles when asked about the process. "I have never talked about that,‘’ he says. "They picked the right guys for the Olympics. That’s all I’ve ever said.‘’
"It was a kick in the gut,‘’ says R.C. Buford, his close friend and colleague from the Spurs. "He’s never forgotten it.‘’
WHEN POPOVICH ACCEPTED the job as head coach of Division III Pomona-Pitzer in 1979, he happily immersed himself in the school’s academic culture. But when he decided to take a sabbatical in 1986, a common practice at the school, Popovich reached out to Coach Spear, who arranged for Popo to spend three months at North Carolina under the tutelage of Dean Smith – and three months with the cool, sockless Larry Brown, who had become the head coach at Kansas.
Brown had assembled a staff brimming with future basketball minds, among them Gentry, Bill Bayno, future Kansas coach Bill Self and a fellow named R.C. Buford.
Popovich and Buford were a curious pair. Robert Canterbury Buford, who hailed from a wealthy family, wore designer shades, drove a BMW and lived in a condo on the most exclusive golf course in Lawrence. "He had a nicer house than Larry Brown did,‘’ Gentry says.
Popovich commuted to Lawrence each day from Kansas City, where he crashed on the couch of his Air Force buddy Mike Thiesen. Popovich drove an old four-door town car "that was so long it didn’t fit in the garage,‘’ Buford says. After late-night games or when the weather turned foul, Pop stayed with R.C.
Although Popovich and Buford had different personalities – Buford was the introvert, Popovich the resident wise ass – the two shared a common interest in thinking outside the box. They spent hours exchanging views on game strategy and philosophies on managing players.
"It was a PhD in basketball every day because of Larry’s curiosity, which rubbed off on all of us,‘’ Buford says. When the nomadic Brown took the head Spurs job in 1988, he invited both Buford and Popovich to join his staff. At the time Pop only owned two sports coats – one from the Academy, the other a houndstooth blazer with elbow patches. For their first game, Pop chose the houndstooth but forgot to take the foil off the buttons from the dry cleaners.
"Larry was more concerned with getting that foil off Pop’s coat than coaching the game,‘’ Buford laughs now. “That’s how prepared we were for the NBA.”
Brown says Popovich’s apartment in San Antonio was practically barren. All he had was a bed, a sofa and chair. "He had nothing,‘’ Brown says. Popovich didn’t care. He was focused on learning as much as he could from the charismatic Brown. Brown discovered that if he took his staff jogging they would relax and share their ideas. Pop didn’t need that stimulation and bombarded Brown with new defensive schemes or creative out-of-bounds plays. The head coach adopted some of his assistants’ ideas, but what he really wanted from Pop and R.C. was to deliver some hard truths for him.
Brown, Buford says, dreaded waiving players and often asked his two assistants to do the dirty work for him. Buford recalls having to tell Reggie Williams that he was being cut the morning after Christmas. Popovich drew the short straw of waiving Avery Johnson just after he returned from being a groomsman in David Robinson’s wedding in December 1991.
Johnson says Pop called and informed him that coach Brown was standing right next to him. "Pop said, ‘The bad news is we have to cut you,’ ‘’ Johnson says. " ‘The good news is you belong in this league and someone is going to sign you.’ ‘’ An hour later the security guard at Johnson’s condo complex informed him Popovich was downstairs. Johnson’s wife protested – "I don’t want to see Pop right now,‘’ she fumed – but Johnson let him up. "Pop was distraught,‘’ he says. "He knew I had put the work in.‘’
Thirty-eight games into the 1991-92 NBA season, when Buford and Pop were still Spurs assistants, Brown abruptly left the team. Owner Red McCombs told reporters Brown asked to be terminated after the team started the year just 21-17. Buford held out hope that his friend Pop would get the nod as the interim coach, but general manager Bob Bass gave himself that title for the final 44 games.
Pop and Buford stayed on, but knew their days were numbered when, in the final days of that season, UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian ambled onto the team bus. Pop said nothing, merely dropping his head. Asked about the ill-fated decision to hire Tark for the 1992-93 season instead of him, Pop says, "Well, it was interesting when they offered me a film job.‘’
Tarkanian lasted only 29 games before he was fired. By then, Popovich was long gone. "But [Spurs owner] Red McCombs made the right decision,‘’ Pop adds. "I wasn’t ready.‘’
If Pop had been given that job, he never would have gone to work under Golden State coach Don Nelson, an unorthodox basketball mind and the pioneer of the point forward who often rolled out a three-guard lineup, long before “small ball” was coined. He created mismatches by pulling his big men away from the basket and spreading the floor, and was the first to institute the “Hack-a-Shaq.”
Nelson hired Popovich at a time when he and his star player, Chris Webber, were barely speaking, so Popovich became the intermediary, the guy whose job it was to tell Webber the hard truths about himself. "Pop was great,‘’ Nellie says. “He’d tell Chris, ‘You’re just silly. You don’t get it. You’ve got to mature.’ Too bad he [Webber] didn’t listen. It took him until he was 35 to get there, and by then it was too late for us.”
Avery Johnson would be reunited with Popovich in the early 90s after Pop was finally elevated to the head coaching job. Long before the Spurs were hailed as the “model franchise,” Johnson and Popovich trudged to grocery stores throughout Texas to erect portable hoops in the parking lot and cook hot dogs to get kids to come out and play basketball.
Johnson remembers Popovich yanking him into the film room one afternoon and showing him grainy footage of a skinny high schooler from Argentina with a beak nose. “See this kid?” Pop told Johnson excitedly. “We’re going to draft him and stash him overseas for a while.”
It was Manu Ginobili.
GREGG POPOVICH IS only interested in truth tellers.
When Patty Mills signed with the Spurs in 2012, Popovich promptly informed him he was fat. Then he went out and told the local media the same thing. "He did tell you guys that, so I guess I can’t lie about it,‘’ says Mills. The public flogging spurred Mills into getting into the best shape of his young life and he developed into a reliable San Antonio reserve.
On June 3, 2014, before Game 1 of NBA Finals against the Miami Heat, Popovich called the team into the film room. Mills glanced up, expecting to see footage of Dwyane Wade; instead, the face of Eddie Mabo, the Australian activist who tirelessly worked to get rights of Indigenous Australians recognized, flashed on the screen. Mills, who is an Indigenous Australian, was moved to tears.
"For Pop to bring it up in that environment was just shocking to me,‘’ Mills says. "I didn’t even know Pop knew who Eddie Mabo was.‘’
Avery Johnson’s moment of truth came in 1998, when Pop declared in front of the entire team that Johnson was "the worst defender he’d ever seen.‘’ Pop rolled film of Johnson giving up long defensive rebounds and snippets of his unwillingness to dive for loose balls. As his point guard stewed, Popovich calmly announced, "If you don’t improve defensively, we’re not going anywhere.‘’ A year later, Johnson and Pop went on to win the 1999 championship.
Former Spurs assistant Monty Williams lost his wife, Ingrid, in a tragic car accident last Feb. 10, and was left to grapple with his own grief, how to maintain his connection to basketball and how to be there to comfort his five young children, who were understandably shattered by their mom’s death. Popovich recently made Williams, who spent only one season with San Antonio in 2004-2005 as a coaching staff intern, an offer: join the Spurs in any capacity you want, and come and go as needed.
When former assistant Mike Brown separated from his wife in 2002, his two young sons moved with her to Colorado. Brown’s sister brought the boys to San Antonio for a visit, but when it was time to take them back to the airport, Brown’s boys dissolved into tears. Brown, who had done the advance work for the upcoming road game against Chicago, called Popovich to let him know he was running a couple of minutes late.
"You better not come,‘’ Popovich barked.
"No, it’s OK, my sister is with them,‘’ Brown replied.
"If you come to this plane,‘’ Popovich growled, "you’re fired.‘’ Then he hung up.
Brown stayed behind and spent two extra days with his sons. When Popovich returned from the road trip, he administered a stern lecture on priorities. The message: family first, then basketball.
When Gentry got his first head coaching job, Pop called him a month in to assure him that all coaches hate the refs, but he needed to control his emotions a little better. When longtime assistant Mike Budenholzer got the Atlanta Hawks job, Pop advised him to "do something about those faces. It projects the wrong image.‘’
As an eager Spurs assistant, Budenholzer was prone to peppering Popovich with new ideas. "Pop would tell me to shut the f— up on a regular basis,‘’ Budenholzer says "He’d say, ‘Bud, stop, I’m sick of hearing it.’ People ask me all the time, ‘Is he really that grumpy?’ I tell them, ‘Yes, but he’s also that incredibly nice.’ It’s real and it’s genuine. He’s all about the truth.‘’
And sometimes, the truth is crushing, like when San Antonio was up five points with 28 seconds to go in Game 6 of the 2014 Finals against Miami and security wheeled out the ropes so celebratory Spurs fans didn’t spill onto the court. Then the Spurs blew the game. Asked in the postgame news conference what he told his team, Popovich declared, “I told them I loved them.”
POPOVICH HAS LOST 37 pounds. He will be 70 in 2020, the year he actually gets to coach the U.S. Olympic basketball team, and he’s determined to be as buff as his players.
So he hops on the treadmill every day, flapping his arms, Buford says, "like a crazy Serbian.‘’ (Popovich is, in fact, half Serbian and half Croatian). He does core work and snaps those heavy, thick training ropes with deftness and determination. "I can do it better than half our guys,‘’ he boasts.
In truth, it is a minor miracle Popovich was given the Olympic job. In 2004, he assisted Brown on the 2004 Olympic team that stumbled to a bronze medal – a disaster, Gentry says, that was “the lowest of the low” for his friends.
Buford says as flawed as the selection process was in 1972, "I can tell you it was equally bad, if not worse in ‘04.’’
Brown says the 2004 team only practiced a dozen times in advance of the games. Because Karl Malone (family death) and Kobe Bryant (sexual assault allegations) pulled out, it left them with a young, inexperienced nucleus. His players were unnerved by a bombing in a nearby hotel while they played an exhibition game in Turkey. Without practice time, there was little opportunity to develop any chemistry.
"We didn’t have a chance to build a team,‘’ Brown says. "We threw those kids into a terrible situation. Pop and I talk about it all the time. I say to him, ‘What could I have done better?’ What I hate most about it is I think it cost Pop his chance at the job.‘’
Indeed, USA Basketball boss Jerry Colangelo tabbed Mike Krzyzewksi to lead the 2008 Redeem Team, bypassing Popovich after a phone interview and a discussed face-to-face meeting that never materialized – a breach of faith that Popovich, who had built a life on being a man of his word, couldn’t reconcile. Colangelo’s public comments regarding the process irked Popovich and led to an icy relationship many thought would never be repaired. But when Colangelo reached out to Popovich last spring to gauge his interest in succeeding Coach K, Pop jumped at the chance, his patriotism superseding any ill feelings that he previously harbored.
In the meantime, the Spurs signed coveted free agent LaMarcus Aldridge, posted their best record in franchise history and continued to reboot their nucleus on the fly.
That doesn’t mean the season was without its share of hard truths. Last March 19, in one of their mostly highly anticipated regular-season games, Popovich made the difficult decision to supplant Tim Duncan in the starting lineup with Boris Diaw against the defending champion Golden State Warriors. Duncan played only eight minutes.
“I know it was hard on Tim,” Buford says. "But he and Pop have put in the time in that relationship that enables them to be real and honest and face those difficult circumstances. It’s what allows Pop to coach guys hard and tell them the truth as he sees it, then be open to hearing the truth as they see it.‘’
So let the masses believe that Popovich is a heartless jerk who delights in humiliating those sideline reporters. Perception, sometimes, is the ideal cloak to conceal reality. "People decide what they think they see in you,‘’ Popovich says. "It’s like being in a political race. You read the party’s agenda and people just repeat it over and over again – like this shtick with me at the end of quarters. I’m just having fun with it.‘’
The team’s continuity, Pop explains, is why they succeed. Owner Peter Holt, Popovich and Buford have unconditionally backed one another for 22 years. "With that familiarity, there’s no blame,‘’ Pop says. "It’s all collegial, it’s all participatory, and so over the years that allows us to make decisions that, if they weren’t the greatest, we can absorb because there’s no blame. So we move on.
"A lot of organizations, for whatever reason, don’t take the time to get to that point. So we’re pretty fortunate. "So to say, ‘We’re going to be the Spurs?’ There’s no such thing. It’s not that we’re the greatest ever. It’s just what we have. So, what, is everyone going to be the Warriors now? They can’t.‘’
The Spurs will continue to let their wives travel on the team plane. They’ll barely (if ever) practice. They’ll work to unearth the next sports science advance and have already built a state-of-the-art practice facility with top-shelf acoustics. Their coach will continue to demand excellence, and no one will blink when he blasts Kawhi Leonard late in Game 1 of a 2016 opening playoff round blowout win against Memphis for not closing out on Vince Carter, hours before Leonard is named Defensive Player of the Year for the second season in a row. "I want to be coached,‘’ Kawhi said at the time. "I thank him for that.‘’
The best regular season in Spurs history ended in a six-game playoff series lost to the Thunder. To some, the Spurs’ moniker as the “model franchise” is in jeopardy, because so many NBA owners crave instant results.
“Pop and R.C. are ovens, not microwaves,” Johnson says. "They can wait when they know it’s worth it.‘’
So the Spurs will continue to stay the course. And they will, above all, believe in the truths of Gregg Popovich, the newly minted Olympic maestro with the bark of a pit bull that doesn’t, in the end, ever really bite at all.
By Jackie MacMullan | ESPN, via ESPN