When the Lakers pushed themselves into a desperate situation step by step, many Lakers fans are now paying close attention to the Spurs game. However, how could the iron-hearted pioneers make the Lakers wish? After the Spurs won, the Lakers are already two wins behind the Spurs. Considering the small score, the Spurs are not as good as the Lakers; this means that with only 4 games left, the Lakers need to win three more games than the Spurs to qualify for the playoffs, and the Lakers this season can basically wash up and sleep.
Sent away DeRozan before the start of the season, the first round jumped primo, the big names did not attract, and halfway also put Fox, White, Thaddeus. Young sent away, just looking at the Spurs' successive operations this year, the outside world once thought that this team had only two goals this season - to help Popovich break records and mess up.
More than 20 days ago, when the Spurs won the Jazz led by Spurs coach Schneider at home, Popovich had become the first in history. But the pendulum that many people expected did not appear in this Spurs! A large part of this is because spurs' team culture doesn't allow for a mess!
Let's push back the clock to the 1996–97 season, when Popovich fired then-manager Bob Hill as general manager and replaced him himself. Because former Spurs player Rodman publicly said that "everyone knows that this person (Popovich) wants to be a coach", coupled with the spurs' choice to swing that season; so that the Spurs coaching whip was labeled Popovich as a "schemer", "power maniac" and other labels, he was very unpopular in the initial stage of the Spurs' coaching; after the 96-97 season, San Antonio Express News launched a vote, 93% of the local people want Popovich to get out.
But that bad season gave the Spurs access to Duncan, the cornerstone of the team. However, due to poor word of mouth, whether it was in 99 or 03 years after winning the championship, the American media at that time also generally believed that Popovich could lead the team to win the championship completely hugging Duncan's thighs; until the rise of Parker and Ginobili, let the outside world see Popovich's selection vision and cultivation of people's wrists, spurs also won the third championship in 5 years in 2007, once called "singular year dynasty", the outside world only added Popovich to the ranks of masters.
Leading the Spurs to one championship after another boosted Popovich's reputation; but the real highlight of Popovich's greatness was between 2011 and 2014. After the first round of black eight was eliminated by the Grizzlies in 2011, due to the serious aging of GDP, almost all The Chinese and American media at that time believed that the Spurs were going to fail, so Popovich changed his team building thinking. Strongly recommended by the then-Spurs' chief assistant coach, Budenholzer, the Spurs used George W. Bush that year. Hill switched to a small card that was not optimistic about entering the league for the first time, and Popovich himself was in Danny. Green showed his vision; and the addition of Small Card and Tielin added vitality to the elderly Spurs, popovich also subverted the previous system of running for several years and winning 4 championships, and followed the trend of the times, playing small ball, and after the center of gravity shifted, the old Spurs were revitalized. This team reached the Western Conference Finals in 12 years, reached the finals in 13 years, and reached the top again in 14 years.
When everyone competes against the inside, Popovich's Spurs are supported by Duncan and are the most stable and defensive team in the league. After switching to small balls, the Spurs won the championship with the fastest pace, the most accurate projection and the smoothest offensive method in the league. When a team's core main framework (GDP) does not move, but can stand to the top in two very different ways, Popovich showed this kind of super flexibility according to local conditions, no one in history can match.
Small-market teams struggle to attract superstars, and with the exception of Duncan, there are few high-pick picks on their hands, so much so that Popovich has never been like Albac, Pat. Riley, Phil. Jackson and Cole have won the full rank like that, but when Popovich can create one piece after another by slowly pounding, he can finally win 5 championships with small fights, such an experience also needs to be inherited. Regardless of where their salaries and paper strength rank in the league, as long as they are on the court, all the players are doing their best to treat every game and refuse to mess up, this is the Spurs' team culture.
At the end of the season, no one knows if Popovich will continue to carry on, but when Popovich has been talking about the future of the Spurs, it is doomed that even if he is no longer the Spurs manager, he will still be at the helm behind the scenes. And on the basis of all the honors that have already been taken over and over again, the refusal to mess up is the last wind bone left by Popovich to the league!