“Sometimes I dream / That he is me / You got to see that’s how I dream to be. / I dream I move, I dream I groove / Like Pop / If I could be like Pop / I WANNA BE, I WANNA BE LIKE POP / Oh, if I could be like Gregg Popovich.” – Clippers coach and first-round opponent, Doc Rivers.
That’s a joke, but LA’s coach and is an obvious fan of the mind games because he was heaping some praise on the Spurs’ maestro. Doc made it clear who is at the top of the coaching heap in the NBA these days. It’s the five-time champion and defending NBA champion coach of the Spurs. Doc compared Popovich to the Michael Jordan of coaching when talking to the LA Times‘ Ben Bolch:
Doc Rivers: "I think every coach in the league wants to be like Pop. Players want to be like Mike, we want to be like Pop."
— Ben Bolch (@latbbolch) April 16, 2015
Popovich is a spy, but he’s also unquestionably the top coach in the NBA. He’s also tight (on grapes) with Doc’s antagonist on the Warriors.
This entire comment sounds like something Phil Jackson would do before a hotly-contested series like the Clippers-Spurs one starting this weekend. It’s complimentary, but an embellishment disguised to make Popovich over-confident. There’s no way in hell that’ll happen, but the grandiose comparison isn’t that far removed from the truth.
Popovich is incredibly well-respected in-and-out of the coaching fraternity; Rick Carlisle — another great coach — even did a solid Pop pantomime during a sideline interview, and calls him “the greatest coach in NBA history.”
Sounds like Mike to us.
