USA Basketball took a look toward the future yesterday when it announced that Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs would succeed Mike Krzyzewski as the national senior men’s team coach for the post Rio-cycle stretching from 2017 through 2020 and including the 2019 World Cup Olympic qualifying tournament in China and the 2020 summer games in Tokyo
Popovich’s selection should make the NBA happy.
While acknowledging the fact Krzyzewski, a Hall of Fame coach from Duke, has changed the culture of a once stagnant Team USA and put it in position to become a dynasty with 63 straight victories dating back to 2006, a pair of Olympic gold medals in 2008 and 2012 and two World Championships in 2010 and 2014, the league wanted one of their own to coach this country’s best players on the global stage. The 2016 summer games will be Krzyzewski’s third since he was named national coach in 2005 and there was even some feeling there should be term limits placed on the job, although 12 years seems fair if a coach is doing a good job and the players are productive.
Popovich has coached the Spurs for 19 years and is the longest tenured coach in any professional sport. He has impeccable credentials. He has coached San Antonio to five NBA championships in 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2014 and was selected NBA coach of the year on three occasions. He has 18 consecutive winning seasons along with a 1032-470 (.685) overall record.
He has one of the most innovative minds in sports and understands the international game as well as anyone actively coaching the NBA game. He has coached Hall of Famers and future Hall of Famers like David Robinson and Tim Duncan and international stars like Manu Ginobli, who won a gold medal with Argentina in 2004; and Tony Parker of France. And, like Krzyzewski, he has a principled, patriotic background, graduating from the Air Force Academy and serving overseas and knows what it’s like to sacrifice for his country. He has been an assistant on three U.S. national teams in 2002, 2003 and 2004.
The only reason Popovich isn’t in the Naismith Hall of Fame is because he asked not to be nominated until he retires.
That will happen soon enough.
When Team USA managing director Jerry Colangelo began this process, it quickly became obvious USA basketball was not going to pick another college coach.
“I think after we’ve had the success we’ve had and established a culture where the players want to participate and are committed ot it, this is natural move to go as we have from college coach to a pro coach,” Colangelo said. The two most logical candidates for the job were Popovich and Doc Rivers of the Los Angeles Clippers. Popovich has a strong relationship with NBA commissioner Adam Silver. Once Colangelo called him to ascertain his interest and Popovich said he would take the job, Colangelo had no choice but to offer it to him unless he wanted to start a controversy.
“Knowing that there was going to be an end to Coach K’s tenure, the question of course internally was who was going to be next?” Colangelo said. “All roads led to Pop. It’s as simple as that. Why is that? It’s because of who he is, his character, his leadership. He’s a winner. He’s a leader, sacrificing attitude in terms of being a military guy. He’s respected by everyone in the basketball world and his legacy of course relative to his championships is extraordinary.”
In many ways, this is no different than Krzyzewski opting to avoid unwanted controversy in 2016 by selecting the 12 players he wants to coach in Rio next June instead of asking a pool of NBA stars to attend tryouts and then dealing with the fall out when he made cuts.
Colangelo announced Krzyzewski would stay on as a special consultant through the next cycle.
Popovich will be 70 years old in 2020 so this will be a one-time deal. It will also be a test whether USA Basketball is just producing teams or whether it can rely on its national youth program to develop future Olympic players.
USA Basketball can insure a seamless succession by naming Rivers the associate head coach for Tokyo and adding a college coach like John Calipari of Kentucky, who could have multiple players on the team, to the staff.
Popovich wanted to be part of the Olympic program ever since he tried out for the 1972 team.
“When I was in my early 20’s and we all had dreams to make an Olympic team . . . that never leaves you,” he said. “You grow up and you watch the Olympic games on TV and you always want to be part of something like that. I’m no different than anybody else. So in that sense, it does have an added meaning. I never thought about being in this position at that point in my life.”
Popovich was an assistant to Larry Brown at the 2004 Olympic games in Athens. After a dysfunctional U.S. Olympic team finished with three losses and a disappointing bronze medal in 2004 Popovich was left with a bitter taste from the experience. But he still wanted a shot at the head coaching job with the national team. He had a conversation with Colangelo following the games and, according to a story by Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports, Colangelo assured him they would have a sit down meeting before the 2008 Olympic coach would be selected. But it never happened. Colangelo announced Krzyzewski in 2005.
“I put that behind me long ago,” he said. “Life is too short to carry on thinking about things that might not have been the most pleasant in your existence. But I honestly put that away a long time ago. I look forward to this only because it’s a challenge and because Jerry Colangelo is going to be there through 2020. If he wasn’t going to be there, my answer would have been, ‘No.”’
This is a job Popovich always wanted, but thought he might never get.
“Well, I would be dishonest if I didn’t say that it’s gone through my mind,” he said. “Anyone would have aspirations to this coaching position. But in the last four to six years, I think I pretty much thought that ship had sailed.
”But as far as compartmentalizing it, you’re a grown up. We’re all mature. We have families. We have our lives. Sometimes you don’t get everything you want and you move on. When you look at the program and see the success, they picked the right coach and there couldn’t have been a better selection at that time. When you’re rolling, you roll and that’s what they did.”
