By Marilyn Dubinski | Pounding The Rock (PtR), 2025-05-07 02:28:40
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。
一个时代随着波波维奇退役而落幕，但他的传奇将永存。
格雷格·波波维奇(Gregg Popovich)在上周五正式卸任圣安东尼奥马刺队主教练一职，但我总是在重大新闻发生时恰好不在。上周五早上，我正从休斯顿前往圣安东尼奥的路上，J.R. Wilco发短信告诉我这个重磅消息。我告诉他我当时正在开车，没法细聊，但如果需要，我准备在下一个小镇韦尔德(Waelder, TX)稍作停留。幸运的是，一向可靠的雅各布·道格拉斯(Jacob Douglas)及时出手相助。
经过一个极其繁忙的周末(以及在周一观看了他的新闻发布会)，这才有机会真正思考这个重大新闻的意义。这是历史性的，是充满感情的，它既改变了球队，也改变了联盟，这是我们可能都知道会发生，但当它真正发生时永远无法完全接受的事情。我们已经有很多关于这个话题的精彩文章，所以请务必去看看，但在报道这支球队九个赛季后，我不能让篮球历史上的这一重要时刻悄然流逝，而不给波波教练送上我自己的告别。
我从小就是马刺队的球迷，并视大卫·罗宾逊(David Robinson)为偶像，但我只是在蒂姆·邓肯(Tim Duncan)时代开始疯狂地关注他们，因为那恰好与我妈妈允许我看球的时间重合（当然，是在我们完成作业之后）。那正好是波波维奇解雇了鲍勃·希尔(Bob Hill)，亲自担任主教练，并为了得到邓肯而“摆烂”的一年后。
在创纪录的常规赛大逆转之后，他们在1998年的季后赛第二轮再次输给了卡尔·马龙(Karl Malone)和犹他爵士队。（我记得我曾希望他们在几周前马龙将海军上将击倒后能复仇，但可惜未能如愿。）随后，在因劳资纠纷而缩水的1999赛季开始时，波波维奇的工作面临着严重的危险，一支拥有夺冠雄心的球队以6胜8负开局。波波维奇的球员们爱戴他，但也知道他可能再输一场比赛就会丢掉工作，所以他们召开了一次球队会议，并决心在休斯顿赢得下一场比赛。他们做到了，正如我们所知，剩下的就是历史了。
“如果我们今晚在休斯顿不能赢球并扭转局面，格雷格·波波维奇可能就执教完他的最后一场比赛了。” @adaniels33 讲述了1999年马刺队的一次会议是如何挽救格雷格·波波维奇的教练生涯的。
每周工作日东部时间下午1-4点在NBA广播收听安东尼奥·丹尼尔斯(Antonio Daniels)与@ WorldWideWob的节目! pic.twitter.com/Go7T5LO4u1— SiriusXM NBA Radio (@ SiriusXMNBA) May 2, 2025
话虽如此，当时我对波波维奇的了解并不多。互联网还很年轻，搜索引擎才刚刚兴起。我只知道我的祖母，她是一位热情的马刺球迷，她讨厌波波维奇，认为他是个混蛋和阴险小人，不认为他能带领球队走向荣耀。她并不是唯一一个这样想的人，但幸运的是，他和所有其他人都在1999年证明她是错的，她在去世前一年看到了她心爱的球队赢得总冠军的愿望。
随着时间的推移，马刺队不断通过非常规的手段赢得比赛和重建，例如利用当时尚未开发的欧洲市场，选秀末段/二轮初段的选秀权，以及其他球队的弃用来打造NBA最强大的替补阵容之一。在2003年、2005年和2007年又获得三个总冠军后，波波维奇已经赢得了圣安东尼奥和NBA社区的尊重，马刺队作为王朝的地位也得到了巩固，但怀疑者仍然挑剔。
“马刺队无法卫冕。波波维奇只是走运。他只是被 handed 了一支好球队。没人看他们，”等等都是留言板和评论区常见的帖子。即使是那些不应该公开仇恨的专业人士，比如菲尔·杰克逊(Phil Jackson)和前NBA总裁大卫·斯特恩(David Stern)，也会表达他们对“无聊”的马刺队的不满，因为他们没有像大市场球队那样为总决赛带来那么多的观众。
即便如此，胜利就是胜利，只有在赢得总冠军不再相对容易之后，波波维奇才会面临他最艰难，或许也是最有价值的挑战。在2009-2011年的艰难时期（以马刺队为标准），他们继续赢得他们必须获得的50场比赛，但未能突破季后赛的前两轮，甚至在2011年以头号种子的身份输给了排名第八的灰熊队，而马努·吉诺比利(Manu Ginobili)带着手肘骨折的伤病参赛。很明显，蒂姆·邓肯的膝盖问题开始困扰他，波波维奇知道是时候做出改变了。
防守可能仍然赢得总冠军，但进攻正在崛起，球队仍然需要得到足够的分数才能到达那里。那时，波波维奇对现代篮球比赛做出了最大的调整之一。他不再以邓肯为中心，以低位单打为主，由内而外的打法，而是增加了更多的无私传球，“美丽篮球”应运而生。即使它更多地采用了波波维奇最鄙视的投篮——三分球——对于对方防守来说，也是势不可挡的。
马刺队缺少的另一件事是他们在五年内三次夺冠期间拥有的防守型侧翼球员布鲁斯·鲍文(Bruce Bowen)，他们以一种非马刺式的方式找到了他。他们打破了通常保留或囤积自己的选秀末段选秀权的模式，用第15顺位向上交易得到了科怀·伦纳德(Kawhi Leonard)，即使这意味着放弃波波维奇最喜欢的球员之一乔治·希尔(George Hill)。所有这些变化都表明，即使像波波维奇这样的老顽固也愿意做出调整以赢得比赛，这一切都在2014年他们最神奇的总冠军中得到了体现，波波维奇罕见地表现出情绪，流下了喜悦的泪水。
那最后一个总冠军最终将成为波波维奇职业生涯的巅峰。他似乎完成了不可能完成的任务，那就是围绕科怀建立第二个王朝，以接替邓肯、吉诺比利和托尼·帕克(Tony Parker)组成的三巨头，而且没有出现任何波折，但伦纳德决定想在他的家乡洛杉矶打球。他和他的叔叔玷污了马刺队的声誉，以便他可以证明自己有理由要求交易离开的不仅仅是被认为是体育界最伟大的组织，而且是一支已经准备好争夺冠军的球队。（是的，根据我们当时所知的一切以及我们自那以后看到的一切，我坚持这个说法。）
在那些艰难的时期仍然有一些亮点，例如波波维奇成为有史以来获胜最多的教练……
……但在作为一支缺乏上升空间的附加赛级别球队的几年之后，马刺队意识到重返巅峰的唯一方法是获得一个新的特权球员，他们用与之前相同的方式做到了这一点：在正确的赛季摆烂并祈祷彩票之神。这需要交易掉他们最好的球员，包括选秀日捡漏/经典马刺队 underdog 故事德章泰·穆雷(Dejounte Murray)和德里克·怀特(Derrick White)，但它得到了回报。在球队历史上第三次，马刺队通过维克托·文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama)这位潜在的历史级内线球员获得了黄金。
波波维奇一直说他不会把一支输球的球队交给一位新教练，并且会带领他们完成重建，但现在他有了一个新的理由留下来。他因执教年轻球员并帮助他们成长而感到精神焕发，这不仅是在球场上，也是在生活中：这是他最伟大的品质之一。尽管在文班亚马的新秀赛季中，他因“试验”过多而受到很多批评，但这再次得到了回报，在斯蒂芬·卡斯尔(Stephon Castle)的选秀中连续第二次获得大奖，并且在签下老将克里斯·保罗(Chris Paul)和哈里森·巴恩斯(Harrison Barnes)之后，马刺队似乎准备在本赛季迈出下一步。
不幸的是，波波维奇没有能够参与其中。仅仅五场比赛后，就有报道称他在11月2日的比赛前遭受了健康问题，后来透露这是中风——无论多么“轻微”，都是一个严重的问题。他将不会在本赛季余下的时间里回归。米奇·约翰逊(Mitch Johnson)担任他的临时教练，之后波波维奇终于在上周宣布，他觉得自己无法恢复到足以承受主教练的艰苦程度，并将火炬传递给了他的门徒，同时保留了他篮球运营总裁的头衔。
当然，这位名人堂教练——他以在公共场合的粗鲁态度而闻名，但实际上是联盟中最善良、最有趣的人之一——在他的六个月来的首次公开露面中，开了一个最后的玩笑，将自己称为“El Jefe”（老板）。
“我不再是教练了。我是El Jefe。”
格雷格·波波维奇 pic.twitter.com/AxVxqKTqzX— The Sporting News (@ sportingnews) May 5, 2025
六个月来第一次看到波波维奇让人感到欣慰，但也令人清醒，因为它揭示了他的真实状况。与此同时，这让人深刻地回忆起他作为一个人的身份。吉诺比利和邓肯站在他的身旁，他说他们在每一次康复训练中都陪伴着他（同时开玩笑说他们是来报仇的，因为他多年来一直对他们大吼大叫），这让人想起了他作为所有球员和工作人员的父亲形象。约翰逊在稍后被介绍为新任主教练时重申了这一点，尽管几个球员的健康问题给波波维奇作为主教练的最后一个官方赛季带来了复杂性，但似乎可以肯定地说，他成功地实现了他的目标，即创建一个拥有特权球员和大量潜在上升空间，能够获胜的球队，留给他的继任者。
从来没有，也永远不会有另一个格雷格·波波维奇。他的军事背景以及他年轻时打球/执教的 underdog 心态使他成为一个独特的人。他受到所有与他合作过的人的爱戴，虽然28年来将首次由其他人正式在场边执教，但他所建立的文化和传奇将继续存在，而他将在办公室里运营球队。这并不是波波维奇和马刺队的终结，这仅仅是一个新时代的开始。
感谢你所做的一切，波波。没有你，马刺队和圣安东尼奥市就不会是今天的样子。
点击查看原文：In Appreciation of Gregg Popovich
In Appreciation of Gregg Popovich
An era comes to an end as Pop retires from coaching, but his legacy will live on for eternity.
Gregg Popovich officially retired as head coach of the San Antonio Spurs last Friday, but I have a serious knack for being unavailable when big news hits. I was traveling from Houston to San Antonio on Friday morning when J.R. Wilco texted me the big news. I told him I couldn’t get it at that moment because I was driving, but I was prepared to make a pit stop in the next tiny town of Waelder, TX if needed. Fortunately, the always reliable Jacob Douglas came to the rescue.
After an extremely busy weekend (and after getting to watch his press conference on Monday), this is the first chance I’ve had to truly ponder the meaning of this massive news. It’s historical. It’s emotional. It’s both team and league-altering, and it’s something we all probably knew was coming but would never be ready to accept when it actually happened. We’ve already had plenty of excellent pieces on this topic, so be sure to go check them out, but after covering the team for nine seasons now, I couldn’t let such a monumental moment in basketball history slide without giving Coach Pop my own proper sendoff.
While I have been a Spurs fan my entire life and grew up idolizing David Robinson, I only started watching them religiously at the start of the Tim Duncan era because that happened to coincide with my mom allowing it (after we got our homework done, of course). This was just a year after Pop fired Bob Hill, took the head coaching job for himself, and “tanked” for Duncan.
After a record-setting regular season turnaround, they once again fell to Karl Malone and the Utah Jazz in the second round of the 1998 Playoffs. (I remember hoping they’d get some revenge after Malone knocked the Admiral out cold a few weeks prior, but alas.) Then, Pop’s job was in serious jeopardy to start the lockout-shortened 1999 season, when a team with championship aspirations was out to a 6-8 start. Pop’s players loved him but knew he was probably one loss away from losing his job, so they had a team meeting and came out determined to win their next game in Houston. They did, and as we all know, the rest is history.
“If we don’t win tonight in Houston and turn this thing around, Gregg Popovich has probably coached his last game.”@ adaniels33 on how a Spurs team meeting in 1999 may have saved Gregg Popovich’s job.
Hear Antonio Daniels with @ WorldWideWob weekdays from 1-4pm ET on NBA Radio! pic.twitter.com/Go7T5LO4u1— SiriusXM NBA Radio (@ SiriusXMNBA) May 2, 2025
That being said, I didn’t know much about Pop at the time. The internet was still very young, and search engines were just becoming a thing. All I knew was my grandmother, who was a passionate Spurs fan, hated Pop, thought he was jerk and snake in the grass, and didn’t think he could lead the team to the promised land. She wasn’t the only one who thought that way, but fortunately, he and everyone else proved her wrong in 1999, and her wish of seeing her beloved team win a championship was fulfilled a year before she passed.
As time went on, the Spurs kept winning and rebuilding through unconventional means, such as using the then-untapped European market, late first/early second round picks, and castoffs from other teams to build one of the strongest supporting casts in the NBA. With three more championships in 2003, 2005 and 2007, Pop had more than gained the respect of the San Antonio and NBA communities, and the Spurs’ status as a dynasty was cemented, but doubters still had their nit picks.
“The Spurs can’t repeat. Pop got lucky. He was handed a good team. No one’s watching,” and so on were the common posts in message boards and comments sections. Even professionals who shouldn’t be haters (at least publicly), like Phil Jackson and former NBA Commissioner David Stern, would express their distaste for the “boring” Spurs who didn’t bring as many viewers to the Finals as the big market teams.
Even so, winning is winning, and it was only after the championships stopped coming with relative ease would Pop face his toughest and perhaps most rewarding challenge yet. With a tough (by Spurs standards) stretch from 2009-2011, they continued to win their requisite 50 games but couldn’t get out of the first two rounds of the playoffs, even losing as the top seed to the 8th seeded Grizzlies in 2011 while Manu Ginobili played with a broken elbow. It was becoming clear that Tim Duncan’s knee issues were catching up to him, and Pop knew it was time to shake things up.
Defense might still win championships, but offense was on the rise, and teams still needed to score enough to get there. That’s when Pop made one of the biggest adjustments to the game in modern basketball history. He moved away from the post-up heavy, outside-in game centered around Duncan, added more unselfish ball movement, and The Beautiful Game was born. Even though it featured more of the shot Pop despised the most — the three-pointer — it was unstoppable for opposing defenses.
The one other thing the Spurs were missing was the defensive wing stopper they had in Bruce Bowen during their three-in-five-years championship run, and they found him in a non-Spursian way. Breaking their mold of typically keeping or stashing their own late draft picks, they traded up for Kawhi Leonard at 15th overall even though it meant giving away one of Pop’s all-time favorite players, George Hill. All these changes showed that even an old curmudgeon like Pop was willing to make adjustments to win, and it all came together for their most magical championship of all in 2014, which had Pop showing rare signs of emotion with tears of joy.
That final championship would end up being the peak of Pop’s career. He had seemingly done the impossible, which was build a second dynasty centered around Kawhi to succeed the Big Three of Duncan, Ginobili and Tony Parker with nary a blip, but Leonard decided he wanted to play in his hometown of Los Angeles. He and his uncle tarnished the Spurs’ reputation so he could justify demanding a trade from not just what was considered the greatest organization in sports, but also a team that was already built to contend. (And yes, with all that we knew then and all we have seen since, I stand by that narrative.)
There were still some highs in those trying times, such as Pop becoming the winningest coach of all time…
… but after a few years in the no-man’s land as a play-in level team that lacked upside, the Spurs realized the only way to climb back up the mountain was to get a new franchise player, and they did it the same way they had before: tank in the right season and pray to the lottery gods. That required trading away their best players, including draft-day steals/classic Spurs underdog stories Dejounte Murray and Derrick White, but it paid off. For the third time in franchise history, the Spurs struck gold with a potential all-time great big man in Victor Wembanyama.
Pop had always said he would not pass a losing team on to a new coach, and would see them through the rebuild, but now he had a new reason to stick around. He felt revitalized by coaching young players and helping them grow not just on the court, but also in life: one of his greatest attributes. Despite getting plenty of criticism for “experimenting” too much during Wemby’s rookie season, it again paid off with a second straight big draft get in Stephon Castle, and after signing veterans Chris Paul and Harrison Barnes, the Spurs seemed ready to take the next step this season.
Unfortunately, Pop did not get to be a part of it. After just five games, it was reported that he had suffered a health issue prior to the game November 2, and it would later be revealed that it was a stroke — a serious issue no matter how “minor”. He would not return for the remainder of the season. Mitch Johnson acted as his interim before Pop finally announced last week that he just didn’t feel he could recover enough for the taxing grind of being a head coach and passed the torch to his protege while maintaining his title of President of Basketball Operations.
Of course, the Hall of Fame coach — who was known for his crass attitude in public but is actually one of the kindest, funniest personalities in the league — had one last joke up his sleeve, revealing himself as “El Jefe” (or the boss) in his first public appearance in six months.
“I’m no longer coach. I’m El Jefe.”
Gregg Popovich pic.twitter.com/AxVxqKTqzX— The Sporting News (@ sportingnews) May 5, 2025
Seeing Pop for the first time in six months was a relief but also sobering, as it revealed his true condition. At the same time, it was an amazing reminder of who he is as a person. He was flanked by Ginobili and Duncan, who he said had been by his side at every rehab workout (while also joking they they were out for revenge for all the years he yelled at them), which was a reminder of the father figure he has been to all his players and staff. Johnson reaffirmed this moments later as he was introduced as the new head coach, and despite the complications several player health issues brought in Pop’s final official season as head coach, it appears safe to say he succeeded in his goal of creating what should be a winning team with a franchise player and plenty of potential upside for his successor.
There never has and never will be another Gregg Popovich. His military background combined with an underdog mentality from his younger playing/coaching days make him his own unique person. He’s beloved by all he has worked with, and while someone else will officially be roaming the sidelines for the first time in 28 years, the culture and legacy he built will continue to live on while he operates the franchise from an office. This isn’t the end of Pop and the Spurs, it’s merely the start of a new era.
Thank you for everything, Pop. The Spurs and city of San Antonio wouldn’t be the same without you.
By Marilyn Dubinski, via Pounding The Rock