San Antonio Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich was named NBA coach of the year Tuesday, making him just the third coach to win the Red Auerbach trophy three times in his career.
Popovich has received the league’s top coaching honor in two of the past three seasons, joining Don Nelson and Pat Riley as the only coaches to win the award three times.
In a career full of strong coaching performances, Popovich may have delivered his best in season No. 18.
The Spurs entered the season still thinking about the devastating loss to the Miami Heat in last summer’s NBA Finals. Once again thought to be too old to challenge LeBron James and the mighty Heat, the Spurs took the defending champions to seven games.
“Suffice to say that I’ve thought about it every day,” Popovich said at training camp in October. “I’m wondering if it will go away. I’m anxious for it to happen, but it hasn’t happened yet.”
They showed up to training camp still stinging from that defeat, and Popovich had to get to know a new-look coaching staff after losing longtime assistants Brett Brown and Mike Budenholzer to head coaching jobs in Philadelphia and Atlanta.
Then he led the Spurs to a league best 62-20 record, which gives them home-court advantage throughout the playoffs. And he did it while deftly navigating a season filled with nagging injuries to several key players. Tim Duncan was the only starter to play in at least 70 games. Tony Parker led the team with a modest 16.7 points per game.
“He’s a gentleman,” Spurs guard Marco Belinelli said of Popovich. “Everybody knows that he’s the best coach in the league. So to say that is not really important. But maybe some people, they don’t know he’s really a great guy, a great gentleman. He really helps guys, helps each other. He wants to help everybody.”
Sports, Pages 24 on 04/23/2014