August 12, 2021 By: Mark Knudson

Why Gregg Popovich is now the G.O.A.T. of basketball coaches

Love him or hate him, it’s time to give Gregg Popovich his due. After steering Team USA through turbulent seas to another Olympic Gold Medal in Men’s Basketball (this nation’s fourth in a row and 16^th in 19^th Olympic summer games) Pop has earned the title of the Greatest Basketball Coach of All-Time.

Consider the evidence.

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Yes, Phil Jackson (with Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Scottie Pippen and Shaquille O’Neal) has more NBA titles. So does Red Auerbach. And Pat Riley has won five titles with two different organizations in two distinctly different styles. Give them props.

College coaches like John Wooden, Mike Krzyzewski, Dean Smith, Bobby Knight, Pat Summit and a couple others also need to be in the conversation. But Popovich – gruff and often rude with the media, along with being outspoken and occasionally unmuted – has done more with less. The most recent Gold Medal – by no means the gimme it used to be – is the cherry on top of his G.O.A.T. resume.

His five NBA titles are of course a huge part of Popovich’s resume (he’s one of only five to accomplish the feat.) He has the most wins in NBA history, including the post season, and led San Antonio to a winning season in his first 22 years at the helm, which is also an NBA record. Yes, he had Hall of Famers David Robinson and Tim Duncan on his title teams. But he also made stars out of non-Hall guys like Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili. And no one can question his amazing success with team-oriented basketball in the era of one-on-one play.

Pop’s amazing NBA resume is the reason he was chosen to take over what used to be a pretty cushy gig. But the days when Team USA’s first head coach, Chuck Daly, had to just roll out the basketballs and let Jordan, Magic Johnson, Charles Barkley and company beat the living crap out of international competition are long gone. The rest of the world has caught up. Team USA Assistant Coach Jay Wright, a championship winning college coach at Villanova, called leading the USA Men’s team in this day and age “the hardest job in basketball.” And he could be correct.

Consider what Pop’s Team USA had to overcome this summer alone.

Start with the COVID-altered NBA schedule that had Game Seven of the NBA Finals scheduled for the day before the Olympics Opening Ceremonies. Nothing like having a little time to prepare, huh? Fortunately to America, Popovich’s San Antonio Spurs were knocked out of the play-offs much earlier (May 19^th) and he had time to pack at least.

A few of his players didn’t. Jrue Holiday, Khris Middleton and Devin Booker were in the NBA Finals, which went six games. They arrived literally at the 11^th hour and didn’t get to practice with the team until after they’d already lost their opening game to eventual Silver medalist France. All the while, Pop and his thrown-together-at-the-last-minute team were feeling the weight of a country with extremely high expectations on their shoulders.

“This is the most responsibility I’ve ever felt,” the 72-year old Air Force Academy graduate told the media after winning gold. “This is an awesome responsibility and I’ve felt that way for several years now. I’m feeling pretty light right now and looking forward to getting back to the hotel and having…something.”

Yes, America still produces more elite basketball talent than any country in the world. But consider for a second that this squad did not go to Tokyo:

LeBron James, Steph Curry, Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving, Kawhi Leonard, Chris Paul, Paul George, James Harden, Jimmy Butler, Kyle Lowry, Donovan Mitchell and Zion Williamson. Think that dozen could have captured the Gold Medal with ease? There are at least three if not more future Hall of Famers in the group that stayed home.

Instead, Popovich relied heavily on one future Hall of Famer, Kevin Durant, and All-Stars Jayson Tatum, Draymond Green, Booker, Zach Levine and Damian Lillard, plus an unheralded group that included JaVale McGee, Bam Adebayo, Jerami Grant, Holiday and even Keldon Johnson. These are all high quality NBA players to be sure…but only KD is on the same level as MVP’s like LeBron, Steph and Harden.

This Team USA was not a dream. This was the “B’ squad.

This was a group that needed coaching like they got from Popovich, and his protégé Steve Kerr.

Which brings us to another point in Pop’s favor: His Coaching Tree. Kerr and Milwaukee’s Mike Budenholzer have won recent NBA titles, and the NBA’s first female head coach will be Spurs Assistant Becky Hammon. Many others have also learned the trade sitting next to Pop.

There are many who would argue in favor of one of the other coaches listed simply because they dislike Popovich’s political stances (which actually have no place in this debate.) But for arguments sake, it’s important to note that as a 1970 graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, Popovich served the required five years of active duty in the Air Force (after playing four years on the Falcon’s basketball team and serving as team captain his senior season) after graduating with bachelor’s degree in Soviet Studies. He underwent intelligence training (making him far more qualified and educated than the guy he was criticizing) and almost became a CIA agent. In short, Popovich has earned the right to state his feelings and call out the failings of leadership. In fact, he’s displaying a lot more civic and national pride by speaking up than are those who remain silent in the face of injustice and corruption. Leading Team USA to a Gold Medal probably means more to Popovich than his five NBA titles put together.

It all adds up to Gregg Popovich being the Greatest Basketball Coach of All Time.