Nobody deserves an All-Star nod more than Gregg Popovich
On Wednesday, the NBA officially announced that San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich will lead the Western Conference All-Star team at this year's Valentine's Day event.
Why is this notable? Well, the Spurs don't have the best record in the conference, for starters. That designation goes to the Golden State Warriors, a team that stomped San Antonio by 30 points earlier this week, and currently lead them by three games.
But Popovich is the right call for several reasons, and the league is fortunate Warriors head coach Steve Kerr didn't force them into an awkward spot:
Coaches aren't allowed to coach the All-Star game two seasons in a row. And that rule really works this year. Popovich is the best basketball coach alive, and it somehow feels like he gets better every single year. The Spurs have the NBA's highest point differential and most stout defense despite losing so badly in that aforementioned contest against Golden State. This is remarkable, and shows just how far ahead of everyone else they were heading into that game.
That type of cushion even lets Popovich's curmudgeonly persona take a breather:
Extremely rare open-mouthed Popovich smile. Approximately three per decade. pic.twitter.com/RkhNazBtY1
— Jason Gay (@jasongay) January 26, 2016
The end results are fantastic, but how and when Popovich pulls strings is what separates him from the field. San Antonio is an outlier: an incredibly successful squad that's drastically gone against the grain from what almost every other club in the NBA is trying to do.
They're big, slow and patient. They don't race up and down the floor. They don't utilize small-ball tactics. They don't launch threes regardless of the game's context.
Instead, they utilize their best player, Kawhi Leonard, at small forward while some other teams would salivate over the idea of using him as a stretch four. But Popovich knows what makes sense for his team, and doesn't worry about trends and league-wide shifts. His team outscoring the opponent is all that matters. And no coach does a better job of giving his group the best possible chance of pulling out a win each and every night. Does he want to coach in the All-Star game? That's obviously a different story (via San Antonio Express-News):
Asked before Monday night’s game at Golden State if he had any desire to coach in the All-Star game again, Popovich chuckled and said, “No comment.”
But this isn't a lifetime achievement award. Pop is the greatest today. He deserves to coach this team every year, but especially right now, while he's squeezing the best from his oldest, most talented team to date.
