bladefd
03-13-2022, 10:39 PM
As an assistant for three seasons with the Spurs, Mike Brown (now a Golden State Warriors assistant coach) saw how Popovich cares deeply off the court.
"I will never forget this: We brought a strength coach in as an intern, wasn't getting paid much money at all. And his internship was up. He had gotten a new job as a youth counselor in Colorado. He didn't have the money to move there, and unbeknownst to anybody, we found out later that Pop bought him a brand new [Nissan] Pathfinder just because he knew that the young man didn't have true means to get to his destination and start his new life as a youth minister.
"Another story is I was going through a separation at the time ... my boys were living in Colorado with their mom, I was . I will never forget, they were out here for about a week and my sister was about to take them back because we were about to go on the road. So when I dropped them off at the airport, the [team] plane wasn't far [away]. They [the boys] were really crying at the gate because they didn't want to go. I was about to be late. I was torn.
"I called Pop [and said,] 'I am going to be there, I am at the airport, my kids are having a tough time getting on the plane to go back. But just give me a few more minutes.' And he goes, 'Mikey, you should just stay here.' I said: 'No, no, no, Pop.' Because we were going to Chicago and it was my scout and I need to go. [I told Pop,] 'The kids will be all right.'
"He said, 'If you show up to this plane, you're fired.' I said, 'Pop, come on, man! Listen, I'm packed and ready. I'll be there in [a little bit].' He said, 'Remember, if I see you on this plane, you're fired.' Click. He hangs up on me. So I stayed back with the kids for an extra three days. So literally just two stories off the top of my head of many that shows his true character."
"I remember Pop made us watch a penguin National Geographic movie. It was very interesting. It was basically learning about teamwork. How to come together as one and go after a common goal, whatever that goal was. I thought it was going to be a day where we watch film. But we watched a full penguin movie -- and it was the most interesting s---.
"How they migrate. How the males watch the eggs while the female goes out for X amount of months to go collect food. How they walk 60 miles to the water and 60 miles back while the males watch -- it was the most craziest s---. But everybody basically playing their role. But to look at it from the perspective of penguins, that's some Pop s---."
[I]A legendary innovator with his unique offensive system, Don Nelson coached 31 seasons, is one of the top-10 coaches of all time, helped create the point-forward trend and held the career wins record until Popovich tied him.
"He's just the greatest coach to ever lace them up. When I hired him as an assistant coach , I figured he could learn something from me. But I learned more from him than he learned from me, that's for sure.
"When I hired him, I met him for the first time when he flew in to get interviewed. And I hired him the same day, I think. ... I had watched him work before games and I just thought that that's a guy that I should have. He's everything and much more than I ever thought I was gonna get.
"The first thing he did when he got to Golden State, he set up a summer league for young kids to play in and stay off the streets. They would play from 10 o'clock at night until 2 in the morning. And he got [an] award for that. He was there every night with the kids. It was in Oakland. There were hundreds of kids involved in the program. It was wonderful. He really did a great job keeping the kids off the streets and out of trouble."
[I]Chad Forcier, a Bucks assistant coach, spent nine seasons with the Spurs as an assistant coach from 2007 to 2016. He won a title with the Spurs in 2013-14.
"One that shines the light on the human element, in terms of his awareness, his compassion for human beings and just always being so quick to recognize that need to try to do what he could to help somebody in a moment -- we had dinner at Ristorante Sotto Sotto in Toronto one night a long time ago. It's an insanely cold night in Toronto. It's probably 5 degrees out. Pop had this leather jacket. Remember the brand Pelle Pelle? He had this designer brand-name jacket. And he throws it on and we start taking our walk back to the Four Seasons. We see this homeless guy. There's six or seven of us walking, and it's gotta be the coldest place in the NBA on this night of any city.
"Pop sees him, maybe takes a stride past him and notices him against a doorway, stops, reaches into his pocket. I don't know how much cash he had, but he wadded up a wad of bills, stuffed them into his coat pocket, takes his leather jacket off and lays it over the homeless guy to give him a layer of warmth. The guy never wakes up; he's asleep. We walk four or five blocks and Pop is in his button-down dress shirt. And off we go."
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/33458182/gregg-popovich-nba-legend-stories-never-heard-san-antonio-spurs-team-usa-coach
"I will never forget this: We brought a strength coach in as an intern, wasn't getting paid much money at all. And his internship was up. He had gotten a new job as a youth counselor in Colorado. He didn't have the money to move there, and unbeknownst to anybody, we found out later that Pop bought him a brand new [Nissan] Pathfinder just because he knew that the young man didn't have true means to get to his destination and start his new life as a youth minister.
"Another story is I was going through a separation at the time ... my boys were living in Colorado with their mom, I was . I will never forget, they were out here for about a week and my sister was about to take them back because we were about to go on the road. So when I dropped them off at the airport, the [team] plane wasn't far [away]. They [the boys] were really crying at the gate because they didn't want to go. I was about to be late. I was torn.
"I called Pop [and said,] 'I am going to be there, I am at the airport, my kids are having a tough time getting on the plane to go back. But just give me a few more minutes.' And he goes, 'Mikey, you should just stay here.' I said: 'No, no, no, Pop.' Because we were going to Chicago and it was my scout and I need to go. [I told Pop,] 'The kids will be all right.'
"He said, 'If you show up to this plane, you're fired.' I said, 'Pop, come on, man! Listen, I'm packed and ready. I'll be there in [a little bit].' He said, 'Remember, if I see you on this plane, you're fired.' Click. He hangs up on me. So I stayed back with the kids for an extra three days. So literally just two stories off the top of my head of many that shows his true character."
"I remember Pop made us watch a penguin National Geographic movie. It was very interesting. It was basically learning about teamwork. How to come together as one and go after a common goal, whatever that goal was. I thought it was going to be a day where we watch film. But we watched a full penguin movie -- and it was the most interesting s---.
"How they migrate. How the males watch the eggs while the female goes out for X amount of months to go collect food. How they walk 60 miles to the water and 60 miles back while the males watch -- it was the most craziest s---. But everybody basically playing their role. But to look at it from the perspective of penguins, that's some Pop s---."
[I]A legendary innovator with his unique offensive system, Don Nelson coached 31 seasons, is one of the top-10 coaches of all time, helped create the point-forward trend and held the career wins record until Popovich tied him.
"He's just the greatest coach to ever lace them up. When I hired him as an assistant coach , I figured he could learn something from me. But I learned more from him than he learned from me, that's for sure.
"When I hired him, I met him for the first time when he flew in to get interviewed. And I hired him the same day, I think. ... I had watched him work before games and I just thought that that's a guy that I should have. He's everything and much more than I ever thought I was gonna get.
"The first thing he did when he got to Golden State, he set up a summer league for young kids to play in and stay off the streets. They would play from 10 o'clock at night until 2 in the morning. And he got [an] award for that. He was there every night with the kids. It was in Oakland. There were hundreds of kids involved in the program. It was wonderful. He really did a great job keeping the kids off the streets and out of trouble."
[I]Chad Forcier, a Bucks assistant coach, spent nine seasons with the Spurs as an assistant coach from 2007 to 2016. He won a title with the Spurs in 2013-14.
"One that shines the light on the human element, in terms of his awareness, his compassion for human beings and just always being so quick to recognize that need to try to do what he could to help somebody in a moment -- we had dinner at Ristorante Sotto Sotto in Toronto one night a long time ago. It's an insanely cold night in Toronto. It's probably 5 degrees out. Pop had this leather jacket. Remember the brand Pelle Pelle? He had this designer brand-name jacket. And he throws it on and we start taking our walk back to the Four Seasons. We see this homeless guy. There's six or seven of us walking, and it's gotta be the coldest place in the NBA on this night of any city.
"Pop sees him, maybe takes a stride past him and notices him against a doorway, stops, reaches into his pocket. I don't know how much cash he had, but he wadded up a wad of bills, stuffed them into his coat pocket, takes his leather jacket off and lays it over the homeless guy to give him a layer of warmth. The guy never wakes up; he's asleep. We walk four or five blocks and Pop is in his button-down dress shirt. And off we go."
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/33458182/gregg-popovich-nba-legend-stories-never-heard-san-antonio-spurs-team-usa-coach