Gregg Popovich can’t be *too* critical of the David Blatt firing
On Monday, a much-anticipated showdown between the Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs was shot to bits by the removal of Spurs big man Tim Duncan, and further shot to bits by the sterling play of both the Warriors and Stephen Curry. Curry obliterated San Antonio’s top-ranked defense on his way to 37 points in just 28 minutes.
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The defending champs won by 30. Afterward, in a move that fell right in line with his other coaching colleagues in the wake of David Blatt’s surprise(ish) firing from the Cleveland Cavaliers, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich offered this bon mot:
And good DAY to YOU, sir!
It took Reddit user “molten_ferret” to remind us that Gregg Popovich shouldn’t stand too far above the fray, here, in light of his decision to remove former Spurs coach Bob Hill of his duties while acting as general manager in 1996. If the phrase “former Spurs coach Bob Hill” strikes you as odd, that’s understandable: Popovich is the longest-tenured head coach in all four major professional pro sports. Put it this way: Pop’s first game featured Dominique Wilkins as his team’s leading scorer.
We’re not here to call Popovich out for hypocrisy, as his decision to take over was the correct one. In light of the Blatt dismissal, however, it is worth revisiting.
The Spurs were the hottest team in a loaded Western Conference under Hill down the stretch of 1995-96. Once the team moved Will Perdue into the starting lineup in a twin tower formation alongside David Robinson, the squad peeled off a 17-game winning streak (second only in the season to the 72-win Chicago Bulls’ 18-game streak) and finished with a 59-23 record.
During the playoffs, though, the team underperformed and lost in the second round to the Utah Jazz. Yet another sterling season from Robinson was wasted, and many speculated that Hill should have been let go on the spot.
Instead, the Popovich-led front office let the summer pass. It also, in one of the busiest offseasons in NBA history, did little to augment the San Antonio roster save for luring Wilkins back from his time spent working in the Greek leagues. The addition of a retsina-tipped 36-year old and Vernon Maxwell were the only notable upgrades to a Spurs team that badly needed someone other than Sean Elliott to acts as its second option offensively.
The Spurs entered 1996-97 as championship contenders and Popovich – perhaps wary of hiring the team’s seventh coach in five years – decided to let Hill have yet another go at things. Robinson hurt his back during the exhibition season, however, and the team began the year on a 3-15 clip. This is when Popovich decided it was time to take over.
Just hours before Robinson decided to make his season debut, mind you. This left the future Coach Pop with a little explaining to do, after firing a coach that had just won 59 games with a healthy David Robinson:
“I fully realize that the timing might look bad. The fact that David [Robinson] is coming back is a coincidence. The decision wasn’t made in a knee-jerk way. It was made with a lot of thought and a lot of counsel and a lot of heartache.”
The team was still shaky even with Robinson in the lineup, winning three of six games before the Admiral suffered a stress fracture to his left foot against Miami while coming to meet the ball. He would miss the rest of the regular season. The Basketball Gods, seemingly, handed out appropriate penance to the former Pomona-Pitzer head coach. The guy that studied under Don Nelson – a coach that was just a few months removed from being chased out of the NBA.
The Spurs were nearly as many months removed from winning 59 games, and after an offseason of inaction Popovich decided to replace that 59-win coach with himself. He also decided to make his NBA coaching debut on the same night that David Robinson – statistically-speaking, by some metrics, the best player in the league at that point – returned to action. The storylines shrieked.
Those same Basketball Gods rewarded Popovich with just 14 more wins on the season, as he milked Dominique for all the legend was worth, with Sean Elliott mostly watching while on injured reserve. The Spurs weren’t even bad enough to earn the league’s worst record and the best lottery shot at Tim Duncan, as the team’s respectable 3-3 showing with Robinson in the lineup allowed the hapless Boston Celtics to finish with the best odds (the 14-win Vancouver Grizzlies, due to the expansion rules of the day, were not allowed to earn the top pick).
Then, because Basketball Gods do not exist, the Spurs won the lottery and the ability to draft Tim Duncan, a guy that ranks amongst the league’s best players some 19 1/2 years later.
(Actually, this might be our best argument yet in championing the existence of Basketball Gods.)
Given a turned-off tape recorder and half a bottle of merlot, Popovich will likely admit that the entire affair was handled artlessly. This isn’t a shot at the now-legendary basketball giant, though. Because even if Pop only stayed on for a truncated season, and the Spurs had drafted Antonio Daniels that June, Popovich did make the right move.
Just not at the right time.
There were calls for Bob Hill’s job the previous May, after the Spurs looked out of sorts against a Jazz team that was supposed to be over that figurative, pardon the term, hill. The former Knicks, Pacers and future SuperSonics coach doesn’t have an illustrious NBA record, one that was bookended by allegations that he helped shove Hubie Brown out of office in New York, while inserting himself into various head coaching searches via New York Post media prior to his resurrection in Seattle.
Popovich and the Spurs should have cut the cord following 1995-96, and the return of Robinson to active play on Coach Pop’s first day at the gig made the whole affair look all the more unseemly.
It’s possible that the Cleveland Cavaliers should have let David Blatt go following his first season on the job; had the franchise been more self-aware (ha!) it would have realized that he wasn’t properly utilizing all three of his stars, on top of the whole part where LeBron James wasn’t ever going to give him a chance.
That last part is worth criticizing James and the Cavs over, and that’s likely the impetus behind Popovich’s snark.
However, even when a Good Guy does the Right Thing, it doesn’t leave him immune from of-the-moment criticism. Gregg Popovich has been there before, and his first pull-back from the NBA curtain was an uneasy one.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops
