Pop’s family wins on Father’s Day

Victory couldn’t be sweeter for San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich or Pop and his “sons,” especially one he mentored for 17 years and won five NBA titles with, seven-foot-tall Tim Duncan. One year after a heartbreaking seven-game Finals loss to Miami, the Spurs beat the Miami Heat in five games. San Antonio had a convincing 104-87 Sunday victory in Game 5, to clinch the team’s fifth title in the Duncan-Popovich era.

The 38-year-old Duncan joins an elite group of NBA stars with at least five championship rings. This group includes Bill Russell, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kobe Bryant, and Scottie Pippen. “It’s amazing to think about having done this five times,” he told Sports Illustrated. “The kind of company I’m in, the people who have had such amazing careers and having had the ability to have one, and for the stretch, and the span between them. To still be in a situation where we can win or I can win another championship is just an amazing blessing, and it’s not taken lightly.”

Popovich was also recognized with Coach of the Year honor. The Big Three of Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili set an NBA record for most playoff victories for a trio, while Duncan also set an NBA record for most post-season minutes played and most double-doubles.  The 22-year-old Kawhi Leonard, whose father was murdered in 2008, captured a title and the Finals MVP award on Father’s Day.

Father and Son

According to an ESPN story, Pop and Timmy were complete opposites. “Popovich was a connoisseur of fine wine; Duncan drank soda. Duncan played video games; Popovich barely knew how to turn on a computer.”

“Duncan and Popovich have this game-day ritual. Popovich takes a seat on the bench alone at halftime, while the rest of the arena is scrambling or shooting or going for a beer, and then Duncan plops down near him. They stare at the ground. Usually, they say nothing. They’ve been doing this for years, and everyone has different theories as to why.”

“You have two sets of eyes on you as you’re finishing off the task at hand. You have the coach, but then you have the coach’s first son. Your older brother. Kind of the man of the house with Dad’s car. And Tim is watching over and kind of quietly assessing what you’re doing, and nothing really needs to be said,” former Spurs guard Brent Barry told ESPN.

There’s chemistry between Pop and his players. It has been said that Popovich can coach anybody. His teams are selfless and quiet and consistent and, well, boring to the rest of the NBA. His players constantly seek his approval, even after they’ve left San Antonio. One-sixth of the head-coaching jobs in the NBA are filled by men who used to play for or coach alongside Popovich. All of them call him “Pop.”

After every season, Popovich and Duncan do charity work together. Earlier this year, Popovich and Duncan helped with a fundraiser to raffle off a custom-made Spurs truck for the San Antonio food bank. Duncan, who recently opened a custom-car shop in San Antonio, actually designed the tricked-out truck, which was won by a single mother who was driving a worn-out minivan from the 1990s.

Popovich is always low-key about his charity work, said Eric Cooper, president and CEO of the food bank. He won’t tell him when or where he’ll visit because he doesn’t want cameras there. “If I ever tried to recognize Pop for an award or something,” Cooper said, “I think he would punch me.”

“They bring out the best in each other and complete each other so well,” former NBA coach P.J. Carlesimo told USA Today, “that you’re tempted to say it’s the perfect relationship. I don’t think there is such a thing. But it would be hard to find one much better.”

After 17 years together, Pop and Tim are the longest tenured player-coach tandem the NBA has ever produced. It is rare enough for a pro athlete to spend his entire career with the same team, but it is almost unheard of for a player to spend that career under the same coach. Even Kobe Bryant, with his five rings, has admitted to being jealous of Tim’s good fortune in that regard. Duncan, 38, has benefited from playing exclusively for perhaps the greatest coach of his era. And Popovich, 65, has been lucky to coach the lowest-maintenance star of his generation.

Only two player-coach pairings have had a more decorated run — the Celtics’ Red Auerbach and Bill Russell, who won nine championships in 10 seasons from 1956-66, and the Michael Jordan and Phil Jackson with the Bulls, who won six titles in their nine years together.  The Spurs’ pair falls in right behind these two as the third greatest such duo in NBA history, according to the numbers.

Brotherhood of men

Boris Diaw, aka best friend of Tony Parker, was an important part of the Spurs championship bid. “Boris has always been a multitalented type of player,” Tony Parker Sr. told grantland.com. “He could just do everything. It just depends on whatever the situation calls for. He’s (like) a cleanup hitter in baseball — he was just there to pick everybody up. He never really had any qualms about star status. He was just always out there doing his thing.”

Diaw and Tony Parker talked about their future in the NBA since they were boys. They dreamt to play against the best, in the style they wanted to play, rhythmic, unselfish, flowing.

Tony went with his father to Chicago to watch a Bulls game. He was into soccer then, France’s premier sport. But after watching Michael Jordan, the small and skinny Parker made up his mind to be the first European point guard to make it in the NBA.

Tony was quick and used his diminutiveness to his advantage. He loved to score and enjoyed the challenge of darting and skirting past bigger players. “I was very small growing up,” Parker said. “I was never tall, so that was the only way for me to get some buckets — to get the teardrop and create contact and different angles to try to go to the basket.”

San Antonio took Parker as the last pick of the first round. By the fifth game of that season, a 19-year-old Parker had supplanted Antonio Daniels, San Antonio’s incumbent starter. He was the youngest point guard to start in the NBA since Magic Johnson did so for the Lakers in 1979.

Pop wanted Parker to run his offense like a 30-year-old veteran, not a 19-year-old kid. The occasional turnover would drive the coach crazy. “He’s been coached really hard basically right out of the gate and his ability to take that, appreciate it, come back, and want more was really something that stood out early,” said Mike Budenholzer, then a San Antonio assistant coach. “He’s got a confidence, too, that was there from the very beginning.” The coaching, the criticism and constant counseling to be better, reminded Parker Sr. of the tutelage he had offered his son. “Pop was good for Tony,” Parker Sr. said. “It was one of those make-or-break types of situations, and fortunately, Popovich was the way he was. Because Tony wouldn’t be where he is today if Pop hadn’t pushed him to be the best player he could be.”

That kind of mentorship and the brotherhood were what Tony wanted his best friend Boris to have.

“He went to Atlanta and it was not a good fit for him, because they don’t play as a team, and he’s a team player,” Parker said. “For you to see Boris at a high level and to appreciate his game, he needs to play with unselfish guys. So it was very hard for him in the beginning. I just told him to stay positive, and hopefully something good will happen.”

Diaw signed in time to be eligible for the playoffs and moved in with his best friend. It was high school in Paris all over again. “When the Spurs asked me, ‘Do you think Boris would be a great fit?’ I was like, ‘Man, if we can get Boris, it’d be a good addition to our team,’” Parker said. “We spent some great time together ’cause it’s not every day you can play with your best friend and compete for an NBA championship.”

Diaw played in 20 games for San Antonio to end the 2011-12 season and became immediately entrenched in Popovich’s rotation. Mike Budenholzer said Diaw mostly impressed the coaching staff with his defense. “I don’t think until you are with Boris every day, battling in the playoffs and different matchups and different difficult situations, I don’t think people appreciate how good a defender Boris is, and how unique and versatile he is defensively,” Budenholzer said.

San Antonio advanced to the 2012 Western Conference finals with Parker and Diaw finally united in the NBA. But while Parker already had his championships, it wasn’t yet Diaw’s time. Oklahoma City beat San Antonio in 2012. Then last year, Miami rallied in the NBA Finals against San Antonio.

“It’s never easy to lose a game, and we’d been so close,” Diaw said. “The main thing that we were thinking about was that Game 6 that we let go. That’s really the one that we should have won and should have put an end to it. But we know we were close. We gave it our all.”

“Sometimes I feel it, I kind of know what’s going to happen, depending on the angle, the screen, or where somebody’s gonna be open,” Diaw said. “When you play a long time with some players, you get to know them, know what they’re gonna do, and that’s why it’s important to get to know your teammates. Some guys that we’ve played years together, we don’t need to talk to switch on defense. We know when we’re gonna switch, we know when we’re not gonna switch, depending on the situation. And same thing offensively — with some guys, I know when they’re gonna go backdoor. I know when they’re gonna come back around a screen to shoot.”

“It surprises me that he’s scoring because he’s never really wanted to do that, to be honest with you,” former coach Larry Brown said. “He feels more comfortable getting everybody else involved. But he’s playing with a team that shares the ball and plays the right way, so I would think that really motivates him a lot, because that’s the way he wants to play and has always wanted to play. I talk to Pop about it a lot. I think having Boris play with the second unit where a lot of stuff goes through him is really something he enjoys.”

Getting the trophy

The series between Miami and San Antonio shifted when Popovich inserted Diaw into his starting lineup before Game 3. Diaw averaged 35 minutes a game in the Finals, up more than 10 minutes over his regular-season numbers. His presence bedeviled the Heat throughout. Diaw’s 43 total rebounds trailed only Tim Duncan’s 50. His 29 assists were the most of any player in the five-game series.

“Implementing Diaw into the lineup has given them another point guard on the floor,” LeBron James said after Game 5. “So Manu, Tony, and Diaw and Patty Mills on the floor at once — they’ve got four point guards basically on the floor at once. So all of them are live, and they all can make plays. It’s a challenge for us all.”

“We’re a true team, and everybody contributes,” Parker said after Miami’s 104-87 dethroning of Miami in Game 5. “Everybody did their job defensively, offensively. We did it together, and that was the whole key this season.” Parker missed his first 10 shots on Sunday, but closed out the game and Miami by making seven of his final eight attempts. Diaw impacted the clincher just as he had throughout the series, grabbing nine rebounds and dishing six assists, while playing a season-high 38 minutes.

“They played the best basketball I’ve ever seen,” said Chris Bosh, who has played in four straight Finals with the Heat.

James concurred: “I would agree (with Bosh). They were the much better team. That’s how team basketball should be played. It’s selfless. Guys move, cut, pass, you’ve got a shot, you take it. It’s all for the team, and it’s never about the individual.”

“That’s exactly how this group will be remembered: an international, brilliantly scouted squad that shared playing time, the ball, the credit, and the desire to atone for their loss to the Heat in the 2013 Finals. San Antonio’s roster included players from eight countries and unprecedented balance with no single player averaging 30-plus minutes per game during the season. The Spurs led the NBA in bench scoring in the regular season and the playoffs, and they did it with less-heralded players. The ball just kept on moving, the players just kept getting open, and the shots just kept going in,” Sports Illustrated concluded.

Sunday night in San Antonio was wild. The honking car horns rang out for hours downtown after the victory, flags dancing from windows and chants of “Go Spurs Go” mixing with whines of vuvuzelas.

“(This) is the sweetest one because it’s just unbelievable to win seven years ago and to be so close last year, it was very cruel, but that’s the beauty of sport,” Parker said, sharing the crowd’s pure excitement. “Sometimes it’s tough. And sometimes it can be beautiful like today, because it shows a lot of character of the team to take a loss and to come back the following year and to win the whole thing. I would change nothing. It makes it even better the fact that we had to go through that and we had to go through a tough loss in Game 6 and Game 7, and to be able to come back. It just makes the journey even more worth it.”

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