Under the influence of Popovich, the Spurs cultural way!

On May 3, Greg Popovich, the legend announced his retirement, officially resigned from his position as Spurs coaching and transferred to the Spurs basketball operations president.

Recalling Popovich's career, he holds five championships and has won at least 50 wins in 18 consecutive seasons. He is the head coach with the highest winning rate in NBA history. He has won 170 playoff games and won the best head coach of the season three times, with countless personal honors.

In addition to a large number of GOAT-level resumes, Popovich's greater contribution lies in the coaching model that has brought far-reaching impact to the league and even the world's basketball system. He understood early on that the key to building a lasting great culture is not only to use stars as players, but also to grow up together as partners. This is the most solid foundation of the Spurs era.

Popovich won five championships in 15 years, thanks to his helping to create one of the most extraordinary and unrevealing cultures of excellence in sports. If Pat Riley created the Heat's iron-blooded way in Miami, then the Popovich philosophy in San Antonio is exactly the opposite of him.

Under Popovich, the Spurs are often underrated teams. They are not used to posing a bunch of championship rings when recruiting superstars. Instead, they consolidate their existing excellent culture and partnerships between senior management and players through dinners and red wine.

No one way to win is wrong, and there are hundreds of ways to achieve the goal. Riley's approach has been successful, and Popovich's approach is equally effective, and is often presented to fans in a less-than-respected way.

Combined with the Spurs' team culture, some clues can also be seen. Duncan and other great players of that era, except for Leonard and Parker, who took the initiative to leave the team, remained in San Antonio, which also demonstrated Popovich's influence. They were willing to get less salary and avoid the spotlight of big cities, becoming the key to the Spurs building a super team.

This is not through high pressure force of the team, but through friendship and cooperation. Of course, Popovich does have strict requirements on his players, but the endings of him and the players are often accompanied by tears and countless praises. When establishing the team in the early days, Popovich rarely recruited with great fanfare. The reason why his method was not so popular was mainly because there were almost no headlines before success.

The Spurs did not find superstars like O'Neal and James to achieve leapfrog growth, and they could not even find their rumors about recruiting stars or that the team's stars were poached. It is this model that belongs to Popovich. The teams he has built and the star players he has trained are basically willing to stay.

When Kobe still received playing time and high-paying contracts at the end of his career, Duncan chose to hand over the ball for the team and become his deputy. When the Miami Big Three created a new trend of super teams led by players, the Spurs chose to stick to their original squad. All of this is thanks to Popovich.

Take the Spurs' last championship in 2014 as an example, which is a perfect example of how Popovich's philosophy wins in a different way than everyone else. Through selflessness, rare basketball wisdom and the ability to see the game more clearly than others.

The Spurs lineup was gradually aging at that time, but Popovich developed a new concept: to achieve load management through round rest. This move is far ahead of other NBA teams, causing the league to have to modify game rules many years later to limit the successful methods that Popovich had already practiced ten years ago.

Even though we are now walking from the sidelines to the Spurs management, this conceptual dispute continues. Limiting players' playing time requires not only foresight, but also courage. It needs to convince stars who have won everything to accept different ideas than before. In the 2013-14 season, no player averaged more than 30 minutes per game in the regular season, making him the only team in NBA history that no player has exceeded this number of minutes but still won the championship. This means that players must put the team above their individuals and need to convince the players to reduce their playing time, thus reducing a lot of opportunities to play data. Players must believe in this strategy, even if there is no effect in December, February and March, they can still bear fruit in June.

This is a revolutionary change and a pioneering act of genius. Duncan averaged 39.3 minutes per game in his first championship, and this time in 2014, his time was cut to 29.2 minutes. Therefore, the 38-year-old veteran was able to play in the team's highest 32.7 minutes in the playoffs, assisting Parker's exciting performance and helping the 22-year-old Leonard win the Finals MVP.

This is typical Popovich's philosophy: manage the self-esteem of players, then gain their recognition, and will be a veteran who is still working to inspire the greatest potential, and a perfect blend with another young star rising, ultimately defeating the Heat, who is completely different in lineup and philosophy. The championship that year ended James' era in Miami and opened up countless possibilities for the later historical trend of the NBA. All this comes from Popovich's early understanding of season load management, and more from Popovich convinces a group of finals players to accept the special ability of less playing time and less data, just for greater team achievements.

Although this concept has not been continued in Leonard, who left in 2018, the culture created by Popovich and the tactical system he foresees and practices are as important and even more influential as his coaching achievements.

culture takes years to build, but only days to destroy it. After Popovich officially stepped down as head coach and transferred to full-time basketball operations president, this may be the best news in the post-Popovich era, especially after the new era with Wenban Yama, perhaps the Spurs will soon usher in a revival opportunity.

Although he retired, Popovich's philosophy will continue to spread in San Antonio for many years.