The Clippers and Spurs are set to tip off their first-round playoff series at 10:30PM ET tonight on TNT. The series will feature Gregg Popovich and Tim Duncan attempting to add a six title to an 19-year partnership that’s one of the most successful in NBA history. But in a recent ESPN Feature Marc Stein wrote about the Tim and Pop collaboration, it’s revealed Doc Rivers almost broke the duo up on two separate occasions before they’d even begun to grab a stranglehold on the Western Conference.
With a tip of the hat to ESPN LA’s Arash Markazi, comes the story of Doc nearly wedging himself between one of the most successful player – coach alliances (Red and Russell, and Phil and MJ would be the others) in the annals of NBA history.
The first instance occurred in 1999, which just so happened to be the first title the two won together. There were high hopes in San Antonio before that strike-shortened 1998-99 season, but the Spurs got off to a 6-8 record, which was all the more damning since there were fewer games. It seems Spurs leadership was right on the cusp of firing Pop if he failed to win his next game, and the popular consensus was that Doc – who was a member of the San Antonio broadcast team after finishing his own playing career in San Antonio — would take over the reigns. Here’s Markazi and Stein with the close call:
In fact, if the Spurs hadn’t beaten the Houston Rockets on March 2, 1999, the feeling among many was Popovich would be gone and Rivers would be named his successor soon after.
[…]
“If we lost that game, they were going to fire Pop and bring in Doc,” former Spurs forward Malik Rose told Stein.
Said Avery Johnson: “There was a lot of noise about Pop being potentially replaced by Doc.”
Johnson and David Robinson met in Popovich’s home before that Houston game, and they ended up blowing out the Rockets before winning 31 of their next 36 games that season on their way to a first of five titles together. But it almost wasn’t to be.
Doc and Pop are close these days, with the former even recently alluding to Popovich as the Michael Jordan of coaching. But the rumors Doc might replace Popovich in 1999 presented a chasm to that friendship that almost led to its dissolution, as Rivers recounts to Stein:
“It did make things very uncomfortable for me,” Rivers said. “The natural talk when that stuff starts to happen is, ‘Are you behind it?’ Me and Pop weathered that and we were fine.”
But that wasn’t the only time Doc almost got between Pop and Duncan.
In 2000, Duncan was a free agent and he thought long and hard about joining Doc Rivers and the Orlando Magic in free agency. The Magic had Grant Hilland the addition of Duncan would have made them title favorites in the East (instead they added Tracy McGrady*). Remember, this was just after Duncan’s third year in the league, and the Spurs had been bounced from the 2000 playoffs after Duncan got injured (it’s one of those rare instances when the Spurs were unable to advance past the first round after winning the title the year before). Doc thought it might actually happen, and the Magic even brought out the big guns — in the form of a round of golf with Orlando resident, Tiger Woods — in an effort to persuade him to make the change. Here’s more from Markazi:
“I thought we had him,” Rivers said. “I thought we had a great shot at him. He was leaning towards coming, but I really think he had loyalty to Pop.”
Rivers and the Magic put the full-court press on Duncan, even enlisting Tiger Woods as a recruiter while Rivers and Duncan played a round of golf at Woods’ course. It looked as if Duncan would join until David Robinson cut short his vacation in Hawaii to come back to San Antonio and, along with Popovich, persuaded Duncan to stay.
“We never had him, but it felt like we did for a moment there,” said Rivers, who would be fired 12 games into the 2003-04 season in Orlando before being hired the following season by the Celtics. “It was close.”
Thankfully for Spurs fans, the Admiral and Popovich convinced Timmy to stay. It was his decision to stay in San Antonio, as well as others, that’s a testament to Duncan’s unique connection with his coach.
For Doc, everything worked out. After Tracy McGrady and the oft-injured Grant Hill experiment failed to work out in Orlando, Doc was fired as the Magic head coach 12 games into the 2003-04 season. Rivers was then hired by the Celtics before that next season and finally captured a title in 2008 with the Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen trio.
Now, after so much has transpired since those fateful few days early in the Duncan-Popovich conjunction, Rivers is facing the same player and coach in the first round. It’s remarkable how close the the Spurs connection came to disintegrating before it could come to fruition, and what a large role Rivers had in almost splitting them up.
Now Rivers must once again wedge himself between the future Hall-of-Fame coach and player if the Clippers are to advance to the next round.
*Originally, we wrote that the Magic could have added T-Mac and Duncan, but BDL’s Kelly Dwyer helpfully pointed out to us that cap restrictions would have prevented them from signing both at their market value.