Gregg Popovich On The Spurs’ Big 3: ‘When They’re Not Here, I Probably Won’t Be Either’

Tim Duncan, Gregg Popovich
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Their season is over, and the San Antonio Spurs as we know them could be, too.

39 year-old Tim Duncan and 37 year-old Manu Ginobili will consider retirement. Danny Green will be one of the most sought after wings on the free agent market. And there’s even the slightest chance Kawhi Leonard slips away in restricted free agency, too.

Though he’s yet to confirm so with absolute certainly, it appears there will be at least one major remnant of San Antonio’s success other than Tony Parker with the team next season: Gregg Popovich. The three-time Coach of the Year sat down for a sprawling exit interview with assembled reporters earlier this week to reflect on his future, the Spurs’, and a fruitful 2014-2015 season that just didn’t go quite as planned.

The transcript of Popovich’s season-ending press conference deserves a full read. The gruff in-game interviewee known to NBA laymen is nowhere to be hound here, replaced by a man equal parts determined competitor, league patriarch, and graceful loser. This is the real Pop – not the one a national audience knows for his boorish between quarter antics.

Via Buck Harvey of the San Antonio Express-News, below are highlights from the former Airman’s must-read presser.

On his personal motivation for returning next season:

“Biggest motivation? I want a job. I want to work. You can only plant so many tomatoes. Lord.”

Thank the lord, actually.

Popovich agreed to a contract extension of undisclosed terms after guiding the Spurs to a fifth championship last June, but that hasn’t stopped many from wondering if 2014-2015 might have been his last season. The 66 year-old is at the point of his illustrious career where retirement will always be a viable option; Popovich simply has nothing left to prove, and there’s a belief that his fate is tied tightly to Duncan’s.

On the other hand, the coach’s post Game 7 quip about a paycheck influencing his decision is lent more credence considering his reported salary. Via ESPN’s Marc Stein, Popovich’s salary is a staggering $11 million.

We’re confident saying money won’t actually be the ultimate factor in Popovich’s future – he’s made plenty of it throughout his career and isn’t wired with that type of motivation. What drives him is a love for the game and the relationships it cultivates, and none are more important than those he shares with Duncan, Ginobili, and Tony Parker.

Here’s Pop when asked to reflect on his Big Three:

“As time goes on, one certainly does. Over the past couple of years, I’ve thought about it a lot how much I’ll miss it when they’re all gone. It’s like your family. Sure. I reflect on it quite often, and think about when they’re not there. I just have this strange feeling when they’re not here, I probably won’t be either.”

Not surprising.

But will Parker’s presence alone be enough to keep Popovich roaming the sidelines? That’s the question this heartwarming take provokes. The Frenchman’s career will will go on for multiple seasons past Ginobili’s or Duncan’s, after all. Only time will tell, but we’re inclined to believe Popovich will hang it up whenever Duncan does.

He offered no more clarity in his final interview on the status of the two oldest Spurs, even refusing to speculate one way or another. Popovich said changes are coming for San Antonio in advance of next season regardless, though, pointing to the club’s most recent long-term plan being nearly completed.

Gregg Popovich
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The Spurs’ was a four-year process, and it ended with one championship, two Finals appearances, and a league-best regular season winning percentage of 72.1. It was an unmitigated success despite the relative failure of last week, one Popovich explains in succinct and typically expert fashion:

“During the first round we needed to get some better performances from three or four people, very frankly. But that happens. When you do you win championships. The year we lost to Miami we didn’t have more than maybe two people who had real consistent play and Miami had four or five guys that were really on top of their games. The following year they had a couple and we had four or five guys on top of their games, fully healthy.”

This goes back to something San Antonio’s leader said before the 2014-2015 season began: that his team would “never play better” than the last three games of the 2014 Finals. Everything broke the Spurs’ way against the Miami Heat last June, leading to an awe-inspiring brand of basketball the likes of which we’d never seen.

Expecting San Antonio – or anyone else in the league, for that matter – to duplicate that performance would always prove a lesson in disappointment. That play was this game played at its absolute apex, and Popovich notes the margins between is and a first-round exit are far thinner than the vast majority of people understand.

2014-2015 simply wasn’t the Spurs’ year.

It still might be the Los Angeles Clippers’, of course, and Popovich doubled-down on his post-game congratulations to Doc Rivers and company as more time elapsed between San Antonio’s heartbreaking loss and Los Angeles’ instant classic victory.

“I’m really happy for those guys. They’re in their prime, with their talent level and everything. New ownership, and guys like Blake and Chris trying to progress further than they have in the past. I’m happy for them. Somebody thought that was weird the other day. How can you be happy, you lost? If you can’t be happy for somebody else’s success, I think you’re pretty small. It doesn’t deflate you if somebody else has success. Sure, I’m sad we lost, but I think you can still be happy for somebody else.”

Just another reminder that we should all aspire to be like the Spurs.

And here’s hoping Popovich sticks around a long while to provide even more examples of unparalleled leadership, grace, and basketball stratagem.

[San Antonio Express-News]

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