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azcatz11 wrote:macNcheese3 wrote:Legendary coach for sure, just not the same without Duncan and the crew. Team USA should have gone in a different direction coaching wise.
Yep - he's over the hill. Team USA needs a younger coach with more energy. The whole Team USA program is extremely stale right now
Marty McFly wrote:don't know where he'd be, but the knicks might have won that 1999 title.
DoctorX wrote:KodiakBear wrote:Out of coaching or like Mr Patches Perry says, part of the carousel where he would have coached 4 different teams in the past 20 years.
Popovich was a great coach, but even as a great coach he was overrated. He got more credit than he deserved for those titles and the Spurs run. He deserved credit, but people were making it seem it his was his great coaching and not the great talent led by one of the best players to ever play. He should have got the Phil Jackson level of credit. People give Phil Jackson credit and he is considered a great coach, but people don't put his role on equal footing with Jordan or Kobe's role in those 11 rings.
To top it off, he is way over the hill. He was 100% the wrong choice to coach Team USA. Team USA has been extremely embarrassing so far and Pop deserves his share of blame for the horrible product that is out there. Even the 2004 letdown at least got a medal. Does anyone here think Team USA will get a medal at this point? I don't know if they even make it to the knockout stage.
Pop lucked out to a large degree that Duncan was a very private superstar and hated the spotlight. Usually the best player is the face of a championship team but because Duncan shunned the spotlight it allowed Pop to be the face of the spurs and inflated his legacy. If Duncan had the charisma of Jordan,Lebron,Kobe,Magic then Pop doesn't get the same type of hype and legacy boost.
DoctorX wrote:Marty McFly wrote:don't know where he'd be, but the knicks might have won that 1999 title.
They would have ended up playing the Lakers or Blazers if Duncan never ended up on the Spurs in '99. Knicks vs Lakers or Knicks vs Blazers in '99 would have been interesting. I think the Lakers would have won but Blazers could go either way since they were mentally a fragile team despite being talented.
jkvonny wrote:DoctorX wrote:KodiakBear wrote:Out of coaching or like Mr Patches Perry says, part of the carousel where he would have coached 4 different teams in the past 20 years.
Popovich was a great coach, but even as a great coach he was overrated. He got more credit than he deserved for those titles and the Spurs run. He deserved credit, but people were making it seem it his was his great coaching and not the great talent led by one of the best players to ever play. He should have got the Phil Jackson level of credit. People give Phil Jackson credit and he is considered a great coach, but people don't put his role on equal footing with Jordan or Kobe's role in those 11 rings.
To top it off, he is way over the hill. He was 100% the wrong choice to coach Team USA. Team USA has been extremely embarrassing so far and Pop deserves his share of blame for the horrible product that is out there. Even the 2004 letdown at least got a medal. Does anyone here think Team USA will get a medal at this point? I don't know if they even make it to the knockout stage.
Pop lucked out to a large degree that Duncan was a very private superstar and hated the spotlight. Usually the best player is the face of a championship team but because Duncan shunned the spotlight it allowed Pop to be the face of the spurs and inflated his legacy. If Duncan had the charisma of Jordan,Lebron,Kobe,Magic then Pop doesn't get the same type of hype and legacy boost.
Plus David Robinson stuck around.
DoctorX wrote:jkvonny wrote:DoctorX wrote:
Pop lucked out to a large degree that Duncan was a very private superstar and hated the spotlight. Usually the best player is the face of a championship team but because Duncan shunned the spotlight it allowed Pop to be the face of the spurs and inflated his legacy. If Duncan had the charisma of Jordan,Lebron,Kobe,Magic then Pop doesn't get the same type of hype and legacy boost.
Plus David Robinson stuck around.
David Robinson was another important part of Pop's success. He was still a superstar when the Spurs got Tim Duncan. He made the sacrifice to be the number 2 guy on that first title run. Very few guys would have been willing to do that especially after being the franchise player for many years. Pop was lucky that Robinson like Duncan wasn't an ego maniac and had a lot of humility.
coastalmarker99 wrote:Pop is just old and out of touch honestly nowadays.
He was a great coach just 5 years ago but it just seems like he lost his fire and zeal to be great after his wife died.
DoctorX wrote:KodiakBear wrote:Out of coaching or like Mr Patches Perry says, part of the carousel where he would have coached 4 different teams in the past 20 years.
Popovich was a great coach, but even as a great coach he was overrated. He got more credit than he deserved for those titles and the Spurs run. He deserved credit, but people were making it seem it his was his great coaching and not the great talent led by one of the best players to ever play. He should have got the Phil Jackson level of credit. People give Phil Jackson credit and he is considered a great coach, but people don't put his role on equal footing with Jordan or Kobe's role in those 11 rings.
To top it off, he is way over the hill. He was 100% the wrong choice to coach Team USA. Team USA has been extremely embarrassing so far and Pop deserves his share of blame for the horrible product that is out there. Even the 2004 letdown at least got a medal. Does anyone here think Team USA will get a medal at this point? I don't know if they even make it to the knockout stage.
Pop lucked out to a large degree that Duncan was a very private superstar and hated the spotlight. Usually the best player is the face of a championship team but because Duncan shunned the spotlight it allowed Pop to be the face of the spurs and inflated his legacy. If Duncan had the charisma of Jordan,Lebron,Kobe,Magic then Pop doesn't get the same type of hype and legacy boost.
KodiakBear wrote:DoctorX wrote:KodiakBear wrote:Out of coaching or like Mr Patches Perry says, part of the carousel where he would have coached 4 different teams in the past 20 years.
Popovich was a great coach, but even as a great coach he was overrated. He got more credit than he deserved for those titles and the Spurs run. He deserved credit, but people were making it seem it his was his great coaching and not the great talent led by one of the best players to ever play. He should have got the Phil Jackson level of credit. People give Phil Jackson credit and he is considered a great coach, but people don't put his role on equal footing with Jordan or Kobe's role in those 11 rings.
To top it off, he is way over the hill. He was 100% the wrong choice to coach Team USA. Team USA has been extremely embarrassing so far and Pop deserves his share of blame for the horrible product that is out there. Even the 2004 letdown at least got a medal. Does anyone here think Team USA will get a medal at this point? I don't know if they even make it to the knockout stage.
Pop lucked out to a large degree that Duncan was a very private superstar and hated the spotlight. Usually the best player is the face of a championship team but because Duncan shunned the spotlight it allowed Pop to be the face of the spurs and inflated his legacy. If Duncan had the charisma of Jordan,Lebron,Kobe,Magic then Pop doesn't get the same type of hype and legacy boost.
Yep Duncan was the right superstar for Pop. He wasn't a big ego or flashy type and was fine to take a step back and just play basketball. There isn't another superstar of the last 20 years that would have done that. Duncan also not being much of a personality is also why Pop has an inflated legacy and was treated like a genius all these years.
And don't get me wrong, Pop was a great coach. He just was elevated to the point of ridiculousness where people acted like he could win with anybody. He won with great talent just as all championship coaches do.
KodiakBear wrote:Roger Murdock wrote:I cant wait for the Pats to have another below average year so everyone can say Bill Belicheck sucks too.
It is actually a similar deal. He doesn't suck. He is a great coach, but like Popovich with Duncan, Belicheck has been highly elevated because he had a superstar quarterback for two decades. Without Tom Brady, Belicheck is a journeyman coach that would have some success and may have won a Super Bowl, but his legacy wouldn't even be close to it is now. Remember his record with the Cleveland Browns wasn't good. Popovich coached Pomona-Pitzer a D3 college in the 80's. His record was 76-129. Yes, of course you can say he improved as a coach in the decade from when he got fired to when he took over with the Spurs, but it is telling. At that level coaching is far more important than in the NBA which is a star driven player's league, yet Popovich never could do better than 16-12.
UcanUwill wrote:Bergmaniac wrote:He's 72 and past it, which is normal at this age, it doesn't take away all the great years he had as a coach.
He was in his prime when he subbed out Duncan out of the game that time they just needed one rebound to win a championship against the Heat.
Roger Murdock wrote:KodiakBear wrote:Roger Murdock wrote:I cant wait for the Pats to have another below average year so everyone can say Bill Belicheck sucks too.
It is actually a similar deal. He doesn't suck. He is a great coach, but like Popovich with Duncan, Belicheck has been highly elevated because he had a superstar quarterback for two decades. Without Tom Brady, Belicheck is a journeyman coach that would have some success and may have won a Super Bowl, but his legacy wouldn't even be close to it is now. Remember his record with the Cleveland Browns wasn't good. Popovich coached Pomona-Pitzer a D3 college in the 80's. His record was 76-129. Yes, of course you can say he improved as a coach in the decade from when he got fired to when he took over with the Spurs, but it is telling. At that level coaching is far more important than in the NBA which is a star driven player's league, yet Popovich never could do better than 16-12.
Brady needed Bill more than the other way around. The primary difference between Bradys career and that of his contemporaries is that when Brady struggles in the post season they still win ~75% of the time whereas Brees/Rodgers/Manning/Warner/Romo etc lose almost every time they don't carry the team. Brady is the only modern superbowl winning QB who basically has had the freedom to play one bad post-season game each year and still walk out with a ring.
Thats the difference. Throughout Tom Brady and Bill Belichecks career the side of the ball Tom Brady didn't play on actually performed better during their superbowl winning seasons.