点击查看原文：Why San Antonio found the right coach to replace Pop
Why San Antonio found the right coach to replace Pop
Columnist Mike Finger and Spurs beat reporters Jeff McDonald and Tom Orsborn discuss the Mitch Johnson officially taking over the Spurs head coaching job from Gregg Popovich and Pop’s retirement.
Suggested reading:
Finger: One last time, Gregg Popovich lives up to the moment
New coach Mitch Johnson aims to do the Spurs Way, his way
Popovich’s coaching career marked by human connections
Finger: Popovich’s presence sure to remain even as he walks away from sideline
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Here is the transcript of the podcast:
From a highly secure network of top secret locations across South Texas, this is the Spurs Insider. I’m Mike Finger, joined by our panel of Express-News Spurs beat writers, Jeff McDonald and Tom Orsborn. And I’m just going to start out by saying that we are recording this the day after one of the gosh darnest things I’ve ever covered.
And that is not hyperbole, that is not sarcasm. Tom and Jeff, Nick Talbot, sports editor is here as well, just popped in. Just want to throw that out there. Tom, what did you think when you saw Greg Popovich walk through that door to be there for that Mitch Johnson introductory press conference?
Well, I mean, it was, we weren’t expecting it, but was anyone surprised that that he was able to do that and do it so well?
I I I was on the I I had heard rumblings that it might happen and just did not, I refused to believe it. I I didn’t think that there was any way that he would do this. And apparently there were people around Greg Popovich who has been busting his tail in physical therapy, who has been showing up to the rock every day with Timmy and Manu, who’s been working with all his physical therapists, therapists of all kinds, trying to to help a 76-year-old man recover from a stroke six months ago.
And for all the reasons that you might expect, there were people who who said, you know, Pop, do you really need to do this? So many things could have gone wrong. You know, take a stumble, lose your bearings. Just those of us who have ever had to speak in public like you know things can go wrong even to people who aren’t trying to come back from a stroke.
You you can’t find your words at some point. That this had the potential to just not go well. And this guy who has for decades of his career made a point of not wanting to make a show of things, and not wanting to do not wanting to call attention to himself, decided that it was worth his while and and something that he owed to the fans, to Mitch Johnson, to the players, to everybody who cared about the Spurs to be there and kind of show that he was granting his blessing to this, that he was retiring of his own accord and that he was excited about what was happening next.
I I’m almost sounding too effusive, Jeff, for people’s comfort. But uh, it really was something.
You um at the beginning, you called it the uh one of the most gosh darn things you’ve ever covered. Uh-huh. Yeah, are you like in honor of Pop, you’re keeping it clean?
Exactly, exactly. You know that’s what he would have wanted? Yeah, the moment was, the moment was, I mean it’s going to go down and maybe we use this kind of phrase a little too much, but like one of the most memorable moments in Spurs history, you know? Yeah. Pop basically, it’s a it’s a I guess kind of a retirement announcement, even though he had already made the announcement via written statement a couple days before.
I I wasn’t expecting to to lay eyes on him. I’ll be honest. I I wasn’t expecting that to happen. For some of the reasons you mentioned, he’s a guy that as we all know, wants to keep the private stuff private as best as he can. And this was him uh choosing to open up the curtain.
And for the reasons you mentioned, and one of the more important reasons he did that was to sort of kind of maybe symbolically or not so symbolically, bestow his blessing on Mitch Johnson and kind of show show the uh the fan base, I guess that this is the guy we are picking. I’m behind this. Um this is who I want to succeed me uh as as the the head coach of the Spurs.
So you know, it was all it was all all of that wrapped into one. It was it was yeah, it was it was the the end of something in the beginning of something all in one press conference and you don’t normally get that.
And it it was keeping with who he is. I mean, it’s it it took guts, you know, um, he had guts to fire Bob Hill, guts to champion international players like he did, guts to hire Becky Hammond, you know, guts to speak truth to power like he did so often in the last uh, you know, since 2016. So I mean, it was it’s in keeping who he was.
That’s why I said, I was surprised to see him, but I wasn’t surprised, you know, it was it was the gutsy thing to do.
It we’ve talked for years and um, Jeff the the you can only grow so many tomatoes line was in Miami, I believe. It was either after the 13 or it was before game seven in like 13. Yes, correct. Which is 12 years ago. Correct. When people were asking him about why he was still doing this.
Um, that’s 12 years of at least of retirement speculation, which is just crazy to think about. Um, but for that long when we’ve kind of talked amongst ourselves about the idea of Greg Popovich retiring, first of all, it just for a long time it was inconceivable to even think about.
Um, you couldn’t process the idea of the Spurs of the NBA or basketball without that guy. But when we would talk about how it might happen if it did, I think something that all three of us agreed on always and most people who’ve covered Greg Popovich agreed on is that the most likely retirement would be a Tim Duncan like retirement.
He was not like we never thought that he would show up and toot his own horn. It was it would be a press release retirement um and then sail off into the sunset and never to be heard from again. And I think that if it was a normal Greg Popovich retirement that we might have seen that.
But because of the circumstances, because he did suffer a stroke, because he did have all, you know, one of the first things he said when he made his way to the microphone was how much he appreciate how much he appreciates all the well wishes and the the the the prayers and thoughts and all that type of stuff that people have offered him over this past six months.
I think because of those circumstances, he felt he owed it to people to show up and thank them. And if he was just, if he had just had a playoff exit two weeks ago and was and was retiring, I don’t think he would have felt the need to do that.
But he there there was a lot of gratitude there for the support he’s gotten since he suffered this um, this stroke. And then to to reiterate what Jeff said, there’s there’s this idea that uh, this the Spurs had to go outside the organization. We can talk about this more later to go hire an all-star um, uh coveted up and coming uh or established head coach to to replace Greg Popovich.
He saw, he recognized, to use Mitch Johnson’s term, he understood the moment of how much it would mean to show the world, to show not not the world really, to show San Antonio, to show the fans that Mitch Johnson was his guy. And I think that meant a lot to people in San Antonio, like by the end of yesterday, I was getting, I’m sure like all of us were getting emails from around the world, like when you write about Manu Ginobili or Victor Wembanyama or whoever, you know, people talk me about how much it meant to them just to see Greg Popovich’s face again, to see him talking, to see him with Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili.
That meant a great deal. And as much as Pop like to kind of poo poo his own importance over the year over the years and say, you know, anybody could do what he did. He wasn’t he wasn’t doing brain surgery or anything like that. Like he understood the moment.
He understood what he means to people. He understood what that image would mean to people to see him there with Mitch. And I give him a heck of a lot of credit for it. Oh yeah, two two other things I’d say about yesterday, the pop portion of yesterday. Um, one, I mean, obviously it was jarring to see him that way. We have not laid eyes on him since since he was healthy, you know. And um, you know, moving slowly, needing help, voice voice weaker than than we all remember.
Yeah. Um, I’m actually told he’s improved immensely, which is also part of that part of that story. But uh, it it was good for him to immediately, you could you could see his mind was still sharp because he immediately, the sense of humor was there. You mentioned, you mentioned one of the first things he he said when he got to the microphone was to thank thank the people and the fans and uh express gratitude.
Actually, the first thing he did was bust Don Harris’s chops. Yeah. That was the first thing out of his mouth was uh something along the lines of uh you know, you guys all know why we’re here, except for Don, he never knows what’s going on. And so in a way of breaking breaking the ice and showing that sense of humor and that sense of humor popped up in his remarks.
Obviously, there was the moment at the end where he reveals his uh new title via his his t-shirt that everyone kind of um laughed about. So and I think that was a a very pop move too. He he he knows that he doesn’t, you know, he knows that that appearance was a little jarring to use the word I used earlier and instead of he didn’t want it to be everyone feel sorry for me, everyone be sad for me.
He wanted to lighten the mood. And I think that was um a total pop move. So that was one thing. And the other thing was just the um like the the the we talk about people talk about Spurs culture and Spurs family so much and it becomes a little trite and it becomes a little uh you’re just using saying words to say words and it’s overblown and blah blah blah.
I mean, I would say that about any any professional team talking that way. Like Little League teams are starting to use that now. It’s college teams and high school it’s our it’s our culture, you know.
The Spurs, the the quote unquote Spurs family though, was on full display at that thing yesterday. I mean, you had Tim Duncan and Tony, uh Tony, Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili. Um, you know, basically easy for you to say. Basically, you know, escorting Pop around and there was if you watched uh those two, even when Pop was sitting and somebody else was talking, they were very um gentle with Pop and and caring.
I would use the word loving. Like putting their hands on him and like patting him and just, you know, like just um interacting with him. And and and to see all the uh, you know, there were other former players out to see Dete Murray come in and he he came in, you know, for two reasons, one for Pop and the other for his buddy Mitch Johnson. But just to see all that and uh the way it transpires transpired and to see that part of the culture on full display um at that press conference, it leads into why hire Mitch Johnson when you could have hired, you know, somebody with more head coaching experience or someone who had won an NBA title before, or someone who had coached teams in the playoffs or coached stars before.
Um, and the reason is because none of those, not none of those people have the Spurs experience that Mitch Johnson would have. And it’s a very specific kind of experience that the Spurs apparently believe that you need to continue um what they’re building with this Victor Wembanyama era. And it wasn’t just go get the best X’s and O’s guys or go go get a guy that has won a title before.
It’s we want a guy that has been here from before Victor even got here and uh knows what we’re building and is on the same page and we know, we all know we’re on the same page.
And and so I think the the Spurs family, Spurs culture aspect is a it’s a direct uh through line to why Mitch Johnson instead of, you know, name your more famous uh coach who’s been a head coach before.
That’s an excellent segue that I’m going to derail a little bit because something else you something else you something else you mentioned during that excellent summary of of what you saw yesterday was the way Manu and Tim were with Pop.
And there was a moment about midway through Pop’s speech where there was a long pause and like everyone in the room, I don’t know if if you guys felt this way, but there was a sense of nervousness there like, is he going to make it through this? And I was struck by how Tim and Manu standing on either side of him over his shoulders. They kind of to me, I might be making too much of this.
They took charge in a way kind of with a look of he’s going to make it through this. Everything is okay. And it was just something that I’m almost like I almost gave myself goosebumps just talking about it because they said we’re going to we’re not going to step in and help him.
We’re not going to we’re not going to prompt him in any way. We’re not going to give him a cue. He’s going to do this. And it was such a vote of confidence. It was such a like a I’m sounding way too emotional here during this. But it was like they they let him do it and he did it.
It was something that he did for them, I’m sure so many times over the years of just you’ve got this. You know, things things might be going against you but I’m not going to call time out here. I call the time out. Yeah. I’m going to let you play through this, knowing that you can get through it.
And those two guys as much as anybody in that in that practice gym knew exactly what he was capable of because not only because they’d spent 20 years with him, but they’ve been showing up um every day for his workouts at the rock. That was another thing. It was really something, man. I I I will never forget that. Um, yeah. Somebody can take over here because I I I’ve just uh I’ve just knocked myself down off my feet. getting a little getting a little dusty over there. Yeah. Yeah. Um, go ahead. No, it was uh you’re exactly right in that what you know, when he talked about those two guys going through the workouts with him or, you know, the re rehab sessions uh, I should say.
You know, I that conjured so many images in my mind, you know, uh, of just the support they gave him and physical, mental, you know, just uh, yeah, that just just came to mind that those guys were with him throughout what must have been very hard, very difficult sessions. And when he made he made the joke of course, he always has the right joke about how uh the reason Timmy and Manley were there was for payback. And you know, there’s there’s two connotations of that word, right?
Potman in the funny payback as in revenge type of thing. Like we’re going to get back at you for all the torturous workouts you put us through.
But then there’s the other definition of payback, which means literally paying you back. And and I think that that part of it um superseded the other. I mean, of course it did. Like they’re there because they owe him for all that Pop had done for them over the years. It’s really, really cool stuff. Like I I wonder, I wonder if there’s another franchise in the NBA where some something circumstances like this would happen where you have two long retired former players uh showing up at a, you know, an ailing coach’s, you know, rehab sessions to to. Well, the difference there the reason there’s not is because no other coach has coached for 29 years.
Yes. Um, you know, I’m I’m sure that if like like who’s who’s behind him Spoo, like uh Dwayne Wade would probably come back for for Spoo at some point. Um, you know, somebody like that. Um, but the the Spurs are so unique in that way that they’ve had the same people running things for so long and that’s the way to get back to your brilliant segue that I ruined in that uh you know what you said earlier about Mitch Johnson carrying that on.
I think that there are other uh to kind of quibble with your point a little bit, there are other coaching candidates out there who could have offered some Spurs connections.
Um, but it would not be Spurs like in the way that this guy came in. It’s kind of cool, he came in the same year that uh Brian Wright did nine years ago. Um, with Dete Murray when they drafted Dete Murray in 2016. And he put in the work, he did the work, he earned everything that came to him every step of the way from the G league to the back of the bench, to the front of the bench to being becoming the the acting head coach.
And the way the Spurs look at things is if you do the work and you earn everything that comes your way, like why would we take that away from you? Why would we say that’s not good enough?
And and and find someone else to do it. The more I thought about it, I I’ve been going back and forth on this like I think a lot of us have over the you know, ever since Pop’s been out and and when we we’ve considered the the thought of who would be next for the long term.
And as as Mitch Johnson did what he did over the past six months, and it wasn’t leading a team to a playoff birth and it wasn’t pulling off a bunch of huge upsets. It was just doing what the Spurs expected the Spurs to do this year.
Um, even with Victor Wembanyama out, even with other injury situations. Um, you know, they they they were better than the when they started. It felt like there was progress being made. Um it it would just seem so spur like to say, okay, then we’re going to take that away from you and go to someone else. Yeah, it’s the right thing to do. For for the sake of the the listeners out there who are saying, yes but, yes but, yes but.
Yes, Mitch is a great story, yes, it’s the right thing to do, but you have been gifted this um historically fortuitous break of landing Victor Wembanyama and then following Victor Wembanyama with the next rookie of the year in Stefan Castle and you have Deren Fox in the fold, don’t you owe it to yourself as an organization to go out and get the best coach money can buy?
I understand that. Um and it’s not something that I just dismiss out of hand, but I think that the way the Spurs run things, the way the Spurs have always done things, they see they see it not as that they settled for Mitch Johnson, but they had the opportunity to hire someone who fits so perfectly into what they’re trying to build.
And uh you know, I’m not going to tell them they’re wrong for that. Yeah, I mean I understand both both of those arguments and if they had gone and thrown, you know, millions of dollars at like a Michael Malone, I wouldn’t have faulted them for that. But uh likewise, I understand the thinking behind letting Mitch continue with with kind of what he did last year, although you know, I talked to someone about um, you know, outside the organization about, you know, how much did you watch Mitch this year in the Spurs with Mitch and what what you know, what kind of coach do you think he is?
And that person said, well, you anyone outside the Spurs organization that’s telling you he’s a good coach or a bad coach is is blowing smoke because nobody knows because he didn’t really have his team last year. They didn’t have Victor Wembanyama for forty something games. And you know, they have they didn’t have a guy over 69 for some of those games. And and um, you know, you’re still running all of Pop stuff.
And by the way, Mitch didn’t go into the season thinking he’s going to be the head coach. It was he was just dropped into it. So the best thing the best thing you can say the job Mitch did last year and it’s a very big thing is the whole thing didn’t just completely capsize. Like he he kept it uh afloat and they won you know, nobody in here is going to throw a river parade uh you know, a river parade for 34 wins, but uh you know, that’s that’s the most they’ve got they’ve won since 2018, 2019, you know, so they did make an improvement even wins losses wise with Victor out for a third of the season.
And Deren Fox coming in mid season and then him going out. And then so I think we’re going to learn a lot more about what kind of a day-to-day coach Mitch Johnson is uh going into this season, you know, assuming everybody’s healthy and and they kind of have closer to the roster that they want to have to compete. Um at the same time, I think he showed enough last year to be given the um opportunity, you know, the opportunity to to show what he show more of what he’s got this year.
So I don’t know. I sometimes you’ll you’ll get on the the bad social media sites that are toxic and throughout the season and you know people just like complaining about Mitch Johnson.
I’m like, I don’t see this at all. I don’t see this. This changed throughout the year, you know, when that when Victor was out, when the whole thing sort of when Deren was out when when the whole thing started going the way it obviously was going to go. But I remember talking on this podcast um early in the Mitch Johnson era after he’d taken over, kind of marveling about how much better the Spurs were in third quarters than last year.
You remember that when when he had his team together. Yeah. And I thought that was a like that I don’t want to make too much of that, but it was like he was making halftime just when he had his team, he was making the adjustments, he was keeping his team engaged. They were coming out and they were they would they looked like a well-coached team.
I don’t think it was uh, you know, I I think there are reasons even basketball related. Like not not big picture, not not Spurs culture and that type of stuff. I think there are basketball reasons to believe that Mitch Johnson knows what he’s doing. Um, and that when he has his uh his full team around him. And also by the way, I I would I would think they’re they’re going to be in the market for um an assistant coach or two, right?
Like I I I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t have any first hand knowledge on Brett Brown. Um he might be back, but the Brett Brown thing was uh I I know he was hired because of Pop uh to to to kind of serve as a sounding board for him. Um, and uh I I don’t know if he comes back, but I I’ll tell you now, if if you’re an assistant coach in this league, an up and comer who wants an opportunity like they they should be able to hire uh a a topnotch staff around Mitch for sure.
Like that that’s going to be a uh job where you you could envision if if you’re a guy who wants to be a head coach someday to come in and and work with this staff for a while and maybe get a job somewhere else. And I don’t think that’s how people viewed jobs as Spurs assistance um recently. Over over the past four or five years, you know, since 2019 or so. So I think that’s going to change and that that should be an opportunity for improvement both in the organization as well.
I I I assume there are people, you know, fans around the league who are going Greg Popovich is retiring. Who is Mitch Johnson? Like why why who who? And I it kind of reminds me, I mean, Like that guy in Phoenix? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. But it kind of reminds me of you know. Tell the story just because to lighten the mood a little bit about Jeff or Tom. All right. Well, that was me, but let me let me finish my point and then Well, I’ll tell the. It was when when was I It was the first time I was in Phoenix. It wasn’t the the April trip.
But it was, I don’t know, was that in January or December? It was after the it was after the New Year, I think. Yeah. And I guess so. But yeah, It was not new news. The point the point is Greg Popovich had been uh sidelined for for months at this point. And then we go into, you know, we watch a whole NBA basketball game. Uh Spurs lose to the Suns.
We go to the uh post game presser, it was me and maybe two two other reporters from Phoenix. One of them is uh like a radio guy with one of those I I can’t even say. Furniture might have been there. Yeah, yeah, furniture was there. Uh one of those like uh cassette players like my parents had. Those they were portable at the time, but they were like the size of a toaster. And a microphone stuck into that.
And anyway, we we interview Mitch about the game and then Mitch leaves the room and that guy with the uh toaster turns to me and goes, conceivably a reporter. Yes, goes now who was that? The man had coached an entire basketball game. Like in front of people in front like in public. Didn’t they ask you where Pop was too? I I said yeah, that’s that’s that’s Mitch Johnson, that’s the assistant coach, you know, he’s he’s taken over for Pop.
Oh, what happened to Pop? What happened to Pop? Yeah. Oh my gosh, so that yeah. When you’re losing the uh as as a news organization, when you’re losing even like the 90-year-old crowd, which is what this guy was, we were we’re doomed. But anyway, my Anyway. people all over the country were wondering who Mitch Johnson was.
I mean my point my point is, there was once upon a time, you know, the heat had a had a very famous coach, one of the most famous coaches in NBA history named Pat Riley. And Pat Riley, what does he do? One day he decides he’s going to retire from the coaching part of the Biz and uh join the uh the front office ranks just full time. And everyone in the country is going, who who the heck is Eric Spolstra? Never heard of this guy.
This is the guy that’s going to coach the LeBron James Heat. Like what? Like how can you how can you possibly entrust the Heat Big 3 era to this no name? And that seemed to work out. And there are other there are other every coach who is I mean this is an obvious point, but every coach who is famous, even the ones that are in the Hall of Fame, once upon a times were nobody’s, you know, you have to start somewhere. No one’s heard of Mark Dano before he was named Oklahoma City’s coach and you know. And he blew that game last night, like so so there you go.
So there you go. And one of these days the Spurs are going to blow game one in the Western Conference semifinals. With Mitch, you you look at the body of work throughout the season. You know, some some fans like Jeff made reference to on some social media sites, they want to see this happen every game, you know, but there were games where he drew up the correct game winning plays.
There were there were games when he had things that he said at halftime, adjustments or motivational wise that helped them. There were there were times when he talked to certain players, you know, Jeremy and Devon come to mind, especially Devon where he got a little bit more out of them than they’ve might have done in the past.
So there was there was enough of that here and there to show that he can do the job and should, you know, have this opportunity going forward. I would see people like this is my least favorite thing to ever read is people complaining about like rotations and why did this guy play and not that guy play? Yeah. Almost zero decisions to make in that regard this year. Exactly. And I was also and I was also, I’m also like but these same people were complaining about Pop’s rotations, you know, the last time he was the you know, they just I don’t like talking about those people.
I think I think the best thing to do is but I I will I will tell you the point the point the point.
I I will compliment you on this on the Spoo thing, which is like dead on down to the fact that uh just out of curiosity, I just looked up uh how old he was when in 2008 when he took over. You you care to guess? Uh 38? He was about to turn 38. Oh younger than. Yeah. Uh-huh. And he been he’d been a an assistant in Miami for about a decade, a little longer than Mitch started as an assistant in in San Antonio, but Spoo started in the film room.
Uh Mitch started in in the G league. Uh very similar. And now Eric Sposter is the longest tenured coach in the league. And and look, I don’t think we’re all sitting here going, this is absolutely going to work out. Mitch is going to I mean, I I think he deserves the chance and has a chance to be great, but this nothing’s guaranteed. We’re not telling people that, but we can totally see why.
I mean, you when once you think about it, you can totally see why why Mitch. And you can make the argument for him. Um, even if you even if some fans disagree and think it should have gone some other way. I think you have to at least acknowledge the reasons why they went the way they did.
Yeah, and and like I said, um even though I wasn’t sure a month ago how this is going to go, and even though on the you know, on the on on the day that the Spurs made the pop announcement and I started hearing from people almost immediately with the Spurs saying, um, you know, that that we’re not going to do a coaching search here, that it’s it’s it’s going to be the guy who’s already there.
I was a little bit taken aback by that at first. Yes. Just how how quickly it it developed and and how quickly they decided to make that decision. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that that was just the Spurs way all along. It of course, that’s the way the Spurs were going to do it. And and maybe this maybe this is obvious, but like if they were going to give it to Mitch, of course they were going to give it to him immediately.
Like they weren’t going to they weren’t going to like have a coaching search and interview guys and then decide it was Mitch. Like that would be not fair, I don’t think. All of this was all of this was um done the Spurs way. And the Spurs way doesn’t always mean a championship every year, but and we’ve talked about this many times before, just the advantages that they have of of sticking with the process and sticking with the same um people in charge, like that pays off in a big way for them uh in in so many ways.
And uh it’s hard to argue with continuing that approach. Um, the other thing I wanted to get back to on on Pop that ties into what we’re talking to about now is uh he, as Jeff said, was very sharp in um in making the points that he wanted to make and making the jokes that he wanted to make. And he also went out of his way to continue to talk about we.
Um, continue to talk about how we expect to keep winning games and we’re not going to let you down and that was his way to saying like I’m still involved in this. And yeah, the the shirt did that too, the he’s the the the president of basketball ops. But uh, he’s he’s going to stay involved and uh I think that’s significant in a lot of ways.
Um, I I think people were were happy to hear him say that it it wasn’t like a I I think Mitch is going to win, it’s we’re going to win and uh. said we’re going to do it classy too. Through that end classy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well I don’t know. You guys got any like pop pop memories you want to share? Any behind This that’s the thing. We could do this for weeks. Um, but what what I don’t know.
Did did were either of you reflective in any way of uh I just I just think all the funny funny stuff behind the scenes we we witnessed over the years, the one liners, the you know the the same two bozos thing in Milwaukee. Uh the time. So many of them are just like that’s not even a great story. But go ahead and tell that because it involves the furniture as well. I have a million of them.
there’s like the time he But just instead of saying I have a million of them, which we do and not trying to wait for the best ones because this isn’t one of the best ones. It’s it’s not even sure it’s top 50%. But it’s the the fun thing about Pop is just you can mention a throwaway one like this one and uh and it’s it’s funny.
So go ahead and tell it. It’s Milwaukee. Yeah, it was the year after the Bucks won the championship, whatever the year that was. They were the defending champions. The Spurs were bad, not a good team. We were wearing masks on press row. I remember that. We were in the in TV seats. Yeah. I remember we were on TV seats.
I didn’t know we’re I didn’t know we’re still wearing masks, but um I think we were. The Spurs go in there with this this really this bad team. I think if I I might be wrong, but it seems to me that like Bryn Forbes had a big game. Yeah. To to pull that one out. Uh they beat the defending champions on their home floor in a year where they’re not winning much at all. And we go back there to the post game interview room and it’s just me and Mike Finger and uh those are the only two people that we’re classified as humans sitting in that in that room.
But uh because there was a Spurs video guy extraordinaire Taylor Hair in the background who doesn’t doesn’t count because he’s blends in. Okay, so after this big victory, Pop walks in, sees it’s just the two of us is almost a little crestfallen, a little bit. Because it was a rousing victory. Yes. It it was it was like the Spurs played great and beat the the defending champs. Like in a in a in a hugely impressive way. The way I picture in my mind is he walks through that door and his shoulders slump just ever so slightly as he sees it’s just me and you.
he shakes his head and he says, win of the century and it’s the same two bozos. And the punch line of course is there’s a third bozo there that didn’t even count. Yeah. Yeah. And said in a way that was not he had that knack of doing that and not being insulting about it. Like it was almost a compliment to being one of the bozos. Anyway. You know we could do that every week, every every podcast till eternity to tell a pop story.
go ahead Tom. Back uh back to Miami uh Spolstra mentioning Spolstra. the the 2014 championship to me still doesn’t get enough you know, enough acclaim to to lose in that dramatic gut wrenching fashion in seven games to the heat before and then to come back and and win that. That’s to me is one of the great NBA stories. And um, you know, I I I think too of uh Buck Buck Harvey wrote that column about how Pop was, you know, moping around after losing in 2013 and his his daughters, you know, finally had enough of it and said, you know, poor Greggy, poor Greggy, poor you.
You know, and that snapped him out of it. and uh but just to to come back and climb that hill again uh and to win it all with that beautiful game. That that just uh, you know, I like I said, I thought I I think it’s an NBA story that doesn’t get enough acclaim. It’s in in the history not just of the Spurs but of the NBA. That’s that’s a I’m not sure there’s many title runs