FILE – San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich points from the bench are during the second half of the team’s NBA basketball game against the
Boston Celtics, March 26, 2023, in Boston.
Popovich evidently doesn’t plan to leave the Spurs anytime soon. The NBA’s all-time winningest coach has signed a five-year contract to remain
coach and president of the team, the Spurs announced Saturday, July 8. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)AP
Gregg Popovich will be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame alongside three International greats in the Class of 2023 including his
own former player Tony Parker.
Jerry Colangelo, chairman of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, revealed on Friday that the Hall had previously tried to induct
Popovich on several other occasions. However, the Spurs coach refused entry until his own Hall of Fame players (Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili,
Parker) all received their own inductions.
Popovich built a dynasty in San Antonio over parts of the last 30 years in part due to his success uncovering top foreign talents such as Parker and
Manu Ginobili.
The 74-year-old Spurs coach explained how he uncovered that talent ahead of the rest of the NBA in his Hall of Fame press conference at Mohegan
Sun on Friday.
“I’ve been in love with foreign players for a long time because they’ve been there for a long time and they’ve been really good for a long time and
nobody wanted to believe it,” Popovich said. “When Larry (Brown) brought me to San Antonio, the first thing I did was ask our GM to go to Europe
and find some players. I knew they were there because back then in the military, sports were really huge. I got to play in all kinds of places and see all
these guys play. I knew they were there. He said yes and I went.
“When I went there in 1988 to the World Championship, there was one other coach there, Don Nelson and that was it. I felt like I was a kid in the
candy store. That’s where it started. I knew they were there. It was just incredulous, you would always hear from people, ‘They don’t play defense,
they won’t matriculate well socially, they won’t like it here and will go back home.’ Obviously, it was the right way to go. To see Pau (Gasol) here, Tony
here, Dirk (Nowitzki) obviously. It’s a lot of fun.”
Popovich drafted Parker with the No. 28 overall pick in the 2001 NBA Draft and also selected Ginobili in the second round of the 1999 NBA Draft.
Both players along with Tim Duncan and David Robinson will induct Popovich into the Hall of Fame on Saturday night in Springfield.
However, Popovich revealed on Friday that he wasn’t sold on Parker after his first draft workout with the Spurs. After the 19-year-old point guard
pushed for a second workout, Popovich tried to stack the deck against him with a number of tough guards in the workout
“They were meaner than hell and we put this point guard (Parker) on the post,” Popovich said. “He had to guard the ball and he kicked their ass and
he just showed me I was totally wrong and I totally misconstrued what I saw with my own eyes.”
“He came in after three or four games, I gave him the ball and said you are in charge,” Popovich said. “I decided because of what he had done in that
workout and what I saw in training camp, you would throw in the frying pan and see if he could come out of it. The rest his history, he’s in the Hall of
Fame.”
Popovich will be inducted into the Hall of Fame as a five-time NBA champion, three-time NBA Coach of the Year and the winningest coach in NBA
history.
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