Gregg Popovich has emotions! Just look at all these different pictures!
Gregg Popovich is a person. He is best known for giving sulky inter-quarter interviews and for coaching a basketball team. Given his dismissive demeanor in his starring moments of camera time, one would be forgiven for thinking that stoicism is his default, if not only, expressed emotion.
But there’s more to a man than the sum of his interruptive interviews to some interloper with a microphone. One has to pay attention to the smaller moments that just don’t get quite as much play. Do you think LeBron is really as charming and charismatic as he comes off when talking with Doris Burke? I think I once saw a picture of him in jorts, so no. Maybe it was a dream, but it still counts.
So for the sake of fleshing Greggory “Basketslam” Popovich out as a person, I’ve decided to take you on a tour of some of his moments of deeper emotion. Obviously, not all can be accounted for. Some moments are saved for private moments like confession, and selfies, and confession selfies, but given the use of camera technology we can at least get a few glimpses.
Here is Pop…
1. Scientific
Like an anthropomorphic vole carefully tucking his sweatervest into his shoes to improve aerodynamics while traveling through time.
The vole’s name is CJ, and he is my friend.
Basketball is as much science as it is art. It’s also as much sport as it is either of those things. There’s also a bit of macho histrionics and posturing thrown in. It’s basically a fajita buffet of all those elements. Wrap them all in a tortilla, and that’s the best analogy for basketball there is.
Pop, at times, is the most grilled-veggies of coaches. You can picture him in his Texas lab, extracting the essence of various basketballs into test tubes and injecting the contents directly into his casks of red wine. He lets the basketball ferment into the perfect vintage of basketball juice then submits it to whatever the FDA equivalent of the playoffs is.
Yes, that is how these things work. Popovich is a studious man. He’s learned a lot, and teaches a lot. He fosters an environment of quiet reflection with screaming. People in the past have not compared the Spurs locker room to a library, but if they had I would have been sure to mention it here.
When one looks at this picture, it’s hard not to try and picture what discovery he’ll have next. The Beautiful Game Spurs took D’Antoni’s seven-seconds-or-less concept and translated it to the modern game. Pop apparently hated it, but that’s the thing about science. It doesn’t care what you think. You can either choose to embrace the data and apply it, or you can look a fool.
Look at this picture. Pop’s mom raised no fool.
Anyway, here is Pop…
2. Ambitious
Like a hungry solar panel curling its tongue toward the sun for sustenance.
One does not coach in the NBA without wanting it and wanting it bad. Unlike millenials who are ruining everything and get everything handed to them and are also rude and also refuse to thank their elders for the debt they’ve been allowed to experience and other opportunities disguised as long-reaching crises they’ve been graced with at such a young age, Pop is good. The most important championship is the one that hasn’t happened yet.
After losing to Chris Bosh’s Heat in 2013, Gregg Popovich came back the next season a brick on the gas pedal. He needed his legs free to kick other coaches in the eye while driving, sorta like the video game Road Rash except instead of a motorcycle it was a sensible four-door sedan with best-in-class gas mileage.
Unlike LeBron’s team this year (keep in mind, LeBron is a millenial and therefore terrible) the 2014 Spurs did not flip a switch. There was no switch, but if there was a switch, Pop would have locked it in the refrigerated safe where he keeps his cheese.
In this picture you can see the eyebrows of a man of desire. You can see the whispering hair of a man who’s been through battle to be here. The thousand mile stare in his case is just how far he’s looking ahead. He’s a lion who likes eating other lions, but in his case it’s okay. It just is.
Anyway, here is Pop…
3. Desperate
Like an asthmatic hippo ripping through an unsuspecting tree in search for more efficacious oxygen.
Not everything can go they way you want. Even someone as experienced and heady as Gregg “Ballsmash” Popovich can find himself in unenviable situations. Pop may control 95 percent of what happens in the world, but that other 5 pecent can still shove its face into his face from time to time.
When I see this picture, I think about Minecraft. Let me explain.
Picture this scenario. This is your first time playing Minecraft. You’re easily distressed, and your friends know it, so they log into your account to teleport you to the bottom of a cave with a stone pickaxe, 20 torches, and leather armor.
When you join the game, all you see in front of you is darkness and a sign that simply says “Dig.” Your buddies on voice chat are snickering and encouraging you in the bullying-est way possible. You’re scared, but you’re playing Minecraft and need to look cool.
What do you do? You dig. You dig like your life depends on it. Stone by stone you go, one block up at a time. Your little position tracker tells you that you should be at the surface at any moment, but then. Oh no. You smash a block and suddenly there’s lava. It’s coming for you. The only way to go is down, but you know the way you have to go is up. Your friends are now laughing hysterically. The zombie noises are getting louder. This is desperation in its purest form.
At this point you die. But Pop wouldn’t. He’s Pop.
Anyways, here is Pop…
4. Snapped
Like a rural stop sign at a disused intersection finally fed up with the callous, routine disregard so it grew arms to fight back and stop those shifty SUVs by his own self.
This is a neighbor to desperation. Desperation is generally “I’d do anything to get out of this situation.” Having snapped is “I’m going to do this one thing, and I don’t care if the world burns in my wake.”
This also makes me think of Minecraft. After having died in the laugh-time lava hole, I waited for my friends to go to sleep, then I made my move.
Three hours I dug trying to find iron ore. It wouldn’t have taken that long if I knew what it looked like. After constructing a dozen buckets, I went back to the lava, scooped it up, and carried into the town my “friends” had made. They named the town “No Matts Allowed,” but I didn’t care. I went right through the gates past the waiting dogs.
They must have known not to mess with me, so I walked right on through. They stared, but they did nothing. Good.
I went to each of their houses, climbed to the roof with some dirt, and pour lava down directly above their beds. I laughed. And I laughed. And I coughed a bit from laughing to hard and laughed some more. At some point I fell asleep, because the next thing I knew I was hungover and getting text messages on my phone saying “that was lame, dude” and “weak.” They were clearly very angry, so I had won.
Some would say Gregg “Coachbest” Popovich was outcoached in Game 4 of the Rockets series. Will he snap and finally stop playing two bigs. Only time will tell.
Anyways, here is Pop…
5. Calm
Like milk.
Like a samoyed in the clouds finally finding itself with its family.
Like a frozen lake next to a windmill in a Dutch Golden Age painting.
Like a rainbow stretching from one pile of leaves to another.
Like rubber cement rolled out and tied into a pleasing pretzel.
Like room-temperature decaf coffee.
Like the moment in Dazed and Confused when the kid puts on his headphones.
Like when you tweet and delete and finally feel confident that no one really saw what you said.
Like when Unleaded gas dips below 2.25 a gallon.
Like a chocolate chip cookie on a plate with a note that says “This cookie is for you. Enjoy this cookie. Love, mom”
Like glass that isn’t shattered.
Like parallel parking on a street with no cars.
Like Kawhi Leonard dunking.
Like reading the word “chocolate” and just letting the thought of chocolate wash over you and then maybe eating some too.
Like a cat on the top shelf of a cat tower, purring and dreaming about fish.
Like a post-it with a smiley face on it.
Like a Cobb Salad.
Like a $10 gift card to Target.
Like taking a break from the all-consuming notion of existential dread and just letting everything suck in peace for a while.
Everyone needs a break from the intense aspects of life from time to time. Gregg “Thinknice” Popovich is, reportedly, a person. He needs his time to let go as well. Luckily a camera person was able to capture one of these moments. The calm comes with you.
Anyways, here is Pop…
6. Ossified
Like the intervening tension between the moment you stub your cold toe on a brick stair and the moment your brain fully equates it to pain.
Don’t confuse frozen with calm. Calm is a nothingness. This is a transition between two somethings. Usually the coming something is worse than the something that preceded it. This is the moment when one fully recognizes that things are about to get much, much worse, and it’s going to happy very, very quickly.
This is a difficult moment for one to capture on film, especially for the Spurs. Popovich’s team is so full of coachy goodness that moments of visceral awful don’t tend to happen. It’s worth speculating on what’s going on here.
Perhaps David Lee was about to shoot a 3-pointer. There’s a perfect, short amount of time between Lee catching the ball near the arc, taking a half step back, and going into his shooting motion for Pop to feel the full “oh no, Oh No, OH NO.”
Perhaps Pau switched onto a guard and didn’t immediately switch back. That moment between expecting a step away and not actually seeing it is enough for terror to run through the veins.
Perhaps Danny Green was about to do anything. Basically anything Danny Green does makes Pop upset in some way. I’m never really sure what it is, but it’s always there and always something. Maybe Pop saw the name on the back of Green’s jersey and thought “wait a second, he’s playing. WHY IS HE PLAYING?”
Anyways, here is Pop…
7. Fulfilled
Like a beard that’s finally found a face after a three month trek through various silicon-valley startups and flannel factories.
Pop is never one to rest on his laurels. Often laurels can be uncomfortable, and Gregg “Warduck” Popovich has not slept in six years. However, he does have his moments where he gets to turn off his anger engine and just experience the joy of life as it happens.
Mindfulness is a useful tool. From therapy to meditation to daily affirmation, it’s a great thought to keep yourself grounded. Living in the moment is often mischaracterized as making whatever choice you want without concern for consequences. That isn’t right. Instead, one should look to keeping themselves grounded. Focus on reality as it is, take in what’s in front of you, embrace all aspects of your senses, and process your immediate surroundings in real time. Don’t drag the past into the present, and don’t pull the present into the future. Now is now.
In doing this, one can gain a deeper appreciation of one’s place in the world and oneself. Try it. Pick out three things you see, three things you hear, and three things you can touch. Focus on each of them individually. Let intruding thoughts come and let them pass. Just know what’s close. Appreciate it.
There’s no greater truth to explore. No mythical element of life to contemplate. What is here is what is real. In all likelihood, you’ll realize that right now things are okay. Deadlines come and go. Moments only more so. The more of them you embrace as they happen, the closer you are to a fuller life.
Congratulations. You are now Gregg Popovich.
Anyways, here is Pop…
8. Hopeless
Like rubber cement clinging to the poster of the rabbit from Donnie Darko during the dry winter months in western Wisconsin.
In Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals, Tony Parker Tony Parkered the Spurs to a five-point lead with less than 30 seconds to go. As staff began wheeling out ropes for the championship celebration, Gregg Popovich was forlorn. The Spurs had about a 99.9 percent chance of winning, but Gregg Popovich was the only person in the building who knew that that day was opposite day.
It’s a terrible burden to be blessed with this kind of knowledge. Pop did his best to tilt the odds in Miami’s favor. He subbed in Diaw for Duncan on a key defensive possession. He applied lotion to Kawhi’s hands. He ate a squirrel alive tail-first during a timeout. None of these things were enough though. The Spurs were nearly guaranteed to win. As such, they lost.
Most of us know similar situations, except the opposite. We’ve been down H-O-R-S to H in while playing in the driveway against our little sister. While we can take the honorable way out and smash the basketball with a golf club until it deflates and demand that the game ended in a tie, Pop had no such recourse. He had to watch as his team took a fate-sealing lead.
I don’t know exactly when this picture was taken, but you can see a small glimpse into the eyes of a broken man here. Sure, he’s reassembled himself, but those cracks in his soul will never fully heal.
Anyways, here is Pop…
9. Embarrassed
Like a mid-20’s layabout caught stealing the cat’s sleep medication at 4AM in his underwear.
Every once in awhile we can laugh things off. It’s good. Laughing at yourself is healthy. It shows we have enough self-esteem to take a couple hits in stride and keep punching along. “Haha. It’s just like me to get my neck stuck in the blender,” you say, and then move along swiftly to the hospital again.
But it’s not always that easy. Self-giggles require perspective, and that requires emotional wisdom. One cannot always get in their wise mind. Sometimes one’s immediate scenario is just too jarring, too pressing. The shame becomes you and you just have to shrink.
It’s deeply unpleasant just alone on your computer when you’re just trying to animate a clip art basketball. It’s even worse when you’re on TV in front of millions of people having to admit to not signing Boris Diaw.
This has been a recurring theme of the playoffs. Every time the Spurs play, online commentators erupt with thoughts of “Diaw would have made that shot” or “Diaw would have made that rotation,” or “Diaw’s personality would have mollified the Rockets and made them forfeit.” These are all extremely fair and accurate assumptions. One has to believe that Gregg “Knowledgehaver” Popovich knows this.
It’s cognitive dissonance between wanting to have personal pride and knowing that this ever present mistake is broadcast every other night into the homes of fans and detractors. They’re all thinking the same thing as he is, and he knows it’s his fault.
Embarrassing.
Hopefully he gets over it soon. This picture is hard to look at.
Anyways, here is Pop…
10. Helpless
Like a child watching through the windshield as the rain melts his garlic-flavored cotton candy into a thin, brown puddle.
Helpless and hopeless are close, but they’re not exactly the same. You can still have hope when you’re helpless. It might be futile hope, but at least it’s something.
This is what I want to discuss here. After Pop gave up his soothsaying powers in 2014, he’s definitely changed for the better. If he slept, he would have no longer been troubled by nightmares. If he rested, he would have rested better.
Now that he’s no longer aware of the absolute absence of happy chance, he can cling to whatever tatters there are. When you have this Kawhi on your team, those tatters seem a bit more substantial. There’s a “maybe.” There’s a “kinda.” Sometimes that’s all you need to press on through adversity.
But sometimes it’s out of your hand. When Pop gave up his ability to tell the future, he also had to give up the ability to take over his players bodies and play for them. It’s no coincidence Tony Parker’s career has been tapering off these last few years. Luckily, Parker is getting older so it just looks like a natural aging curve. But nope. It’s the lack of Popovichian possession.
This picture was taken immediately after Tony Parker missed a cutting Dedmon. Pop could see it. Pop thought to himself “I could have made that pass.” But he couldn’t. Not anymore. He’s there. Helpless. Wailing on the inside.
Anyways, here is Pop…
11. Thinning
Like the scotch tape holding David West’s facial hair in place slowly coming undone over the course of four quarters.
There are players Gregg “Personbeliever” Popovich trusts, and there are people he doesn’t trust. He has leashes of varying length, and they’re cut in half once his teams reach the postseason. And his teams often do reach the postseason. 46 of the last 45 by my count.
But with the lack of patience in others comes a lack of patience with himself. Danny Green bricks a 3-pointer? A piece of Pop’s soul gets knocked away. Pau steps too far out on a switch to help back in the paint? Some metaphysical jerk takes a hammer and chisel to Pop’s heart. Pop sees a picture of Boban in another team’s uniform? A controlled implosion takes place.
Over the course of the game, it’s one mark after another. Picture a three-year time lapse on a sports bar dart board, except accelerate it to 48 minutes of basketball. Eventually you cross a threshold and you can see, “Something’s just not right here.”
Gregg “Facemover” Popovich wears his emotions plainly, but these kinds of progressions are difficult to track in real time. It’s like keeping track of your height on a door frame. You don’t see it happening, but one day you realize “Wow, I’m finally five feet tall.” One minute you realize “Pop is a withered man.” Scrape after scrape, sliver after sliver, the game takes its toll.
That’s when this picture took place. He needs a hug.
Anyways, here is Pop…
12. Conflicted
Like a middle-aged man coming to terms with the fact that he is vaguely attracted to the dancing tigers at the end of Zootopia.
Basketball is a game of give and take. You give a shot, you take a shot. You give a foul, you get a foul. There are always competing forces at work trying to drag momentum to their own advantage, a contest between Life and Death, assuming that those are the names of two different basketball teams.
There’s a saying that goes “The real basketball is mind basketball that’s played in the mind.” Gregg “Mindperson” Popovich made that saying up I bet, so I’m pretty sure he’s familiar with it. Sometimes mind basketball is a game of one-on-zero. That’s a tawdry way of saying you play it against yourself, in your own mind. I call it Mind Time.
While the physical act of basketball ends when the final buzzer sounds, mind basketball never stops unless you’re dead, sleeping, or playing Mario Kart. This means most every shot of anyone will entail some level of conflict. I believe this picture of Pop was when he just came out of a long day spa trip complete with massage, sauna, and pedicure. That means the worries of life are broadly stripped away. Thought is in its purest form, and the purest thought is basketball.
It’s a tough balance to maintain, but Popovich has always been known for his routines on the balance beam and parallel bars. This is why he’s such a pretty good coach.
Anyways, here is Pop…
13. Surrendered
Like a spent sodastream carbonation dispenser just shooting out weak streams of air into blueberry-flavored tap water.
There’s a freedom in letting go. There was a character in Frozen who had a whole song about it. There was ice, and a scale switch, and a snowman, so you know it had to mean something. There’s no bigger Disney fan in the world than Gregg “I’ve watched Aladdin every day for the past 17 years” Popovich, so he probably knows that song and the underlying urge to give up.
Giving up doesn’t have to be a bad thing, though. Sometimes you need to tap before Brock Lesnar breaks your arm. Sometimes you need to dump your diseased opinion in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Popovich was always caping for Duncan to play more flashy and “stop being so concerned about being a good teammate” but after a decade or so of Duncan playing the way he wanted to, Pop acquiesced. It’s a beautiful story of a player finally reigning in a young, firebrand coach and turning his latent talents into something great.
This picture was taken immediately after Pop came to terms with the fact that his Hardee’s coupons were two days expired and the cashier was in the right rejecting him, no matter how much he wanted 40 cents off that burger. Sure, he made a scene, and sure she lost her job, but he’s at peace with himself now. This is a happy ending.
Anyways, here is Pop…
14. Engorged
Like a mermaid refreshing on a rock after a vigorous act of sexual congress with a pond fish.
When you don’t let go, sometimes you grab on with animal ferocity. It’s like opening a box of pizza and cramming in your hand to get that first, best piece, the one with the most pineapple and the biggest crust bubble. A basic drive. Once you have that perfect slice, you need that stolen moment to bask in your own carnal greatness.
This isn’t vanity, this is self-love. We need those moments when our id is allowed to the surface. It needs to get out in the sun, to kick off its id sandals and get a nice id tan. After all, without vitamin D, your id is just I. I feel like I phrased that in a way that should have deeper meaning, but it really doesn’t.
Pop does stuff with deeper meaning, though. His id has layers, so many, in fact, that it barely shows even when out in the open.
But we see it sometimes. When Kawhi scores 35 points without breathing, Pop shuffles excitedly in his seat. When George Hill leaves a “just thinking about you” message in his voicemail, he flushes.
I believe this picture here was taken at a moment when Pop was least guarded. Just before this shot was taken, Jonathon Simmons got into a defensive stance. I know from my own experience, I couldn’t stand up for about a half an hour. One can only imagine the thoughts in Pop’s head.
Anyway, here is Pop…
15. Overjoyed
Like winning a raffle for a free three month subscription to “Cletus Meats” — YouTube’s foremost digital online meat webshow.
Good things do happen. Sometimes they even happen to good people. Gregg “Goodguy” Popovich, by most accounts, qualifies.
They say the third Coach of the Year award means the most. I only coached CYO 6th grade JV basketball for two years, so I never got to know, but had I won something for my time, I’d have for sure been humbled and thrilled at receiving a third thing. Therefore, I know exactly how Pop thinks about everything.
Happiness begets happiness, and it’s difficult not to smile yourself looking at this picture. You can see Pop’s tears beginning to well up. The smile lines on the sides of his face are pursing. The left side of his neck is getting that little ridge that shows up when one is overwhelmed by true joy, and that’s something that not even the best actors can fake.
The first time I saw this picture I was in a rough patch. My last three attempts at Easy Mac had not been successes. I’d been running out of money for microwaves, and running out of time to bring up my lactose quotient before the big lactose parade. I was at the bottom but couldn’t even bring myself to look up. Then I saw this picture of Pop. He made me believe that the world could have care. He made me stand and try again. For that I can’t thank him enough.
Anyways, here is Pop…
16. Eureka-ing
Like finding out the real secret to speed running is training a nest of termites to press the buttons for you and rewarding their efforts with danish crumbs.
Discovery. It’s what makes heroes of the past great, as long as you don’t mind ignoring complicating factors of terrible crimes against humanity upon realizing that what they discovered had already been discovered. They’re not really heroes if you think about it. Well, except maybe space astronauts.
The moon has been in the sky since people had eyes. When night-vision goggles were invented, man’s obsession with the crater orb just grew. “We need to go there for some reason,” people would say to themselves.
Well, one person set out to make this happen. Neil Armstrong wasn’t satisfied with just wondering what the moon would be like, he was going to find out for realsies. With college fund, he set up constructing a rocket in his spacious backyard. Woodshop class couldn’t prepare him for the cost financially or emotionally, but he stuck it through. It took eight days without only minimal breaks for food and swimming.
On the 13th of December he finally began his journey. I guess it was pretty simple one he got past the birds. Upon arrival on the moon, he put on his space suit, opened the door, and stepped out onto the moon ground. America watched with terror. After a brief moment to collect his thoughts, he said “oh.”
This picture was taken when Popovich had something like that happen.
Anyways, here is Pop…
17. Staggered
Like witnessing a camel in its natural habitat for the second time but thinking it’s your first because you were drunk before.
Basketball is a camel. The camel begins at the start of every game. Sometimes after watching Aladdin every day for 17 years, you can get a bit numb to the beauty of camels and basketball. It’s just Manu, and spitting, gray uniforms, and humps that store water time after time after time. Repetition is repetitive.
But then there’s a flash, an unanticipated epiphany where everything around you comes into vision, and you see the same with new eyes. Manu bounces a pass off one of the humps straight to a streaking LaMarcus Aldridge who forgoes an open lane for a midrange jumper. Blammo. The genie turns Apu into a camel for a parade, and the splendor smacks you in the mouth.
In moments like these, the truth of the game is everything you see. As much as Pop likes to hide it, he’s overwhelmed more often than any other NBA coach. This isn’t because he’s real bad at his job and whatnot; he coaches the most aesthetically pleasing team in the NBA as of three years ago, and not much changes in that span of time. Sure some people still say they’re boring, but the most boring things in life are the most beautiful. Have you ever looked at sand? Like, really, really looked at it? Exactly.
The above picture is Gregg Popovich in the middle of one of those revelations. Red Panda just got eight bowls on her head. How does someone learn how to do that?
Anyways, here is Pop…
18. Relieved
Like getting the final piece of evidence you need to confirm your horse will not bring forth all pestilence because the apocalypse has already started.
Much like a step-parent that doesn’t want you to call him “dad” but call him “Greggy” instead, Popovich wants to be his player’s friends more than anything else. He likes winning, sure, but he’d rather be able to call up Dwayne Dedmon at 10 p.m. to hear how his day has been and twirl the phone cord while listening. This is why so many pundits compare him to Michael Scott.
But with friendship comes the duties of personal empathy. You begin to care about what happens to people, and that just sucks. Coaching his hard enough without being on pins and needles every time your player goes to the free throw line.
It’s no coincidence that Kawhi Leonard is one of the best free throw shooters in the NBA. He just wants to make Pop happy. Furthermore, he doesn’t want to make Pop sad. Players feel upset when they miss free throws, but Pop feels that pain twice over. It’s this interpersonal connection that drives his team to practice hard and hit those weights.
But the anxiety remains. When the ball is up in the air, Pop’s stomach is up in his throat. Tension tension tension.
And then the ball goes in, and this picture is taken. So much strain is evaporating from Pop’s face in this picture, like one of those foam mattresses that come in a box and then release when you puncture the packaging. Pop is a mattress. Pop has never not been a mattress.
Anyways, here is Pop…
19. Pacified
Like realizing that Guy Fieri was just a nightmare and putting away the knife.
Again, we have two close emotions, but you can see the slight difference in Gregg “Subtletyappreciator” Popovich’s left half of the upper lip. Relieved seems to signify a removal of a bulk of non-specific negative emotion. Pacification resolves anger in particular.
Gregg Popovich doesn’t typically get angry. You saw earlier in the Rockets series him giving a severe, tongue-in-cheek dressing down of David Lee on the sidelines in Game 1. To the uninitiated observer, that may have looked like a verbally-violent confrontation, but to those who know Pop and basketball well, there were the ever present signs of a running joke. Every Spurs player off camera was presumably laughing along.
But Pop has gotten angry in the past. He usually takes it out by a three-hour disc golfing jaunt between games, but every so often those moments of creeping rage occur in the middle of games. If it’s not halftime, he doesn’t have the discs to help him. He’s on his own. He has to depend on his players to placate him.
Here we see the immediate moments after Pop looked at Pau Gasol, looked at Pau wearing a Spurs jersey, and thought to himself “Europe.” Some people have mantras, little key phrases to repeat to themselves to pull themselves out of their choler cocoons like “let it be” or “Jeremiah was a bullfrog.” Pop just names a few European countries, and then suddenly the red turns to blue, and the world is a better place to be. Incredible camera work to capture this moment.
Anyways, here is Pop…
20. Proud
Like when you finally assemble that perfect house of cards from unpaid parking tickets, complete with conservatory and attached gazebo.
Contrary to popular belief, Gregg “Thingwinner” Popovich has a lot to be proud of. This is by no means an exhaustive list but here are some of the things he’s accomplished in his 63 year career:
- Coached Dennis Rodman
- Coached Boris Diaw
- Coached Boris Diaw’s cappuccino machine by proxy
- Ate an entire Little Caeser’s Hot N’ Ready by himself over the course of three days
- Shook LeBron’s hand
- Won some championships and coach of the year things.
Most people can’t even lay claim to half that catalog. Say what you want about Gregg Popovich’s rotations, demeanor, and beard game, but you can never say that he probably never saw Diaw on a segway. This man is an NBA luminary, and I don’t use that word often because I don’t know what it means.
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Pop doesn’t let his guard down too often nor is he one to be satisfied with where he is. He’s forever looking ahead for the next mountain to climb or bird to eat. As they say, “Game time is blame time,” so he’s not going to display much positive emotion, especially not ones that reflect solely on himself. But here, we get a classic example of Popovich’s pride peering through his porcelain veneer. It lights up the camera and lights up my soul.
I hope you enjoyed this tour through Pop’s face. Here’s to another 80 years of this stuff.