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Popovich alone in 5th for coaching wins
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Gregg Popovich was the coach nobody wanted.
It鈥檚 hard to fathom now, after five NBA championships as coach of the San Antonio Spurs and with him now alone in fifth place on the league鈥檚 all-time victory list. But it鈥檚 true 鈥 Popovich鈥檚 decision to fire Bob Hill and make himself coach and general manager in December 1996 was horribly received at first, leaving even some of his own players baffled.
The San Antonio Express-News took a poll after that season and found that 92 percent of Spurs fans wanted Popovich fired.
As Popovich would suggest now (on politics, one of his favorite topics), sometimes voters get it wrong.
鈥淭he pressure is always there for any coach,鈥 Popovich said. 鈥淵ou鈥檝e got to get the job done. If you don鈥檛, you鈥檙e not there. If you do get it done, you get to stay.鈥
He said those words in 1997. He was right.
Popovich now has 1,176 wins. He鈥檚 34 away from No. 4 Pat Riley, 45 shy of No. 3 Jerry Sloan, and should catch both next season. He would need 156 to catch No. 2 Lenny Wilkens, and 159 to match No. 1 Don Nelson鈥檚 record of 1,335.
鈥淒oesn鈥檛 mean anything, except I鈥檝e had good players and I鈥檝e been coaching for eons,鈥 Popovich said.
On Tuesday, he was just as fooled initially as the referees and didn鈥檛 realize that Manu Ginobili鈥檚 overthrown pass had gone in the basket, the most bizarre bucket of San Antonio鈥檚 100-91 victory over the New York Knicks.
鈥淚 did not, in all honestly. I did not,鈥 Popovich said. 鈥淭hen everybody started grabbing me and saying the ball went in. I said, 鈥榊eah, the ball went in!鈥 I acted like I knew what was going on.鈥
He almost always does.
LaMarcus Aldridge scored 29 points and Kawhi Leonard had a season-high 25 for the Spurs. Ginobili finished with 12 points 鈥 three of them coming on what appeared to be a pass that went into the basket without everyone noticing.
Ginobili appeared to be attempting a lob pass from beyond the 3-point line to Aldridge, but the pass went over his head. Beasley grabbed it and began dribbling up the court as Ginobili and other Spurs waved frantically to the officials that the ball had actually gone into the basket. Referees credited the basket to Ginobili but only for two points. The basket was reviewed after the quarter ended and counted as a 3-pointer.
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