San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich has won more NBA basketball games than any other coach, including five years where his Spurs team won the very last game of the season — which means five NBA titles. (That’s the goal — to win the last one.)
Popovich, of course, didn’t play in any of those games, so it stands to reason that Pop has coached some of the greatest players of all-time.
David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, Kawhi Leonard, DeMar DeRozan — Popovich has coached each of these greats and many more.
The Spurs legend has also coached against the best, from Michael Jordan and LeBron James to Dwyane Wade, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant — just to name a few.
Many of the players named above might be considered the “prototype” for a great basketball player. But Popovich named somebody else.
Last night the Spurs dropped a heartbreaker to the Dallas Mavericks, losing by one point (126-125) in a game that saw rising superstar Luka Doncic drop 51 points, despite what Popovich said was great Spurs defense. So what did Pop think of Doncic and his performance?
“He’s an amazing player,” Popovich said afterwards. “His IQ is just off the charts.”
Before the game, Popovich was even more effusive, saying Doncic is “just a beautiful basketball player. He’s like the prototype for high basketball IQ and high skill level all rolled into one guy.”
That said, Popovich didn’t want to linger too long on Doncic’s performance in the postgame. He sought to return attention to his young team’s valiant effort, saying:
“We would rather win than lose like everybody else in the world, but really proud of their effort and the way they just kept going even after we got down whatever it was, 13, 14, I can’t remember.”
The Spurs were down because Doncic scored 22 points in the first quarter alone. And this despite the fact that Doncic may be slower than Larry Bird, another player renowned for an off-the-charts basketball IQ.
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