While the muted constance of their less-than-exhilarating brand of basketball has often failed to resonate with NBA fans, the San Antonio Spurs
have long been hailed within the league, and by many who cover it, as
one of its most progressive and innovative organizations. The attention
to international scouting and player development, the early
adoption/consistent embrace of advanced statistical analysis, the
repeated home runs hit with late first-round and second-round draft
picks, the continual reconfiguring of offensive and defensive strategies
around the evolving games of San Antonio's stars ... it's all
contributed to a run of 16 straight playoff appearances, with 14 consecutive 50-win seasons, five finals appearances and four NBA championships over that span.
While much of that success is obviously owed to the brilliance of All-Star players like David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili,
a healthy share of credit also belongs to the unique talents and
approach of the man who directs their movements and manages their
minutes (sometimes, to the chagrin of the brass in New York).
Gregg Popovich is both one of the best coaches in NBA history and a man
of wide-ranging interests — as former Spurs center and current director
of basketball operations Sean Marks told Jere Longman of the New York Times,
Pop's an "incurably inquisitive" sort who's just as "likely to ask
[center Aron] Baynes and guard Patty Mills about wildfires in Australia,
quiz Ginobili about politics in Argentina and grill Parker about the
latest Beaujolais" (Pop's pretty into wine, in case you hadn't heard):“The team being so multicultural, it forces guys to communicate, to go out to dinner, to tell their stories,” Marks said. “[...] And it gives Pop a unique avenue to reach out to those guys. One of his messages is, ‘Life is much bigger than basketball.’”[Play Yahoo Fantasy Basketball: Catch video highlights and real-time scoring]
One pretty important element in that "much bigger" picture, the world of politics, certainly ranks among Pop's interests. Although he's not always so forthcoming with his personal political opinions — imagine that! — the Air Force Academy graduate and former spy-in-training has in the past made campaign donations to Democratic political candidates, including President Barack Obama; sung the praises of CNN senior political analyst David Gergen; and given his players copies of presidential debates as mandatory viewing. He's up on this stuff, he believes it matters, and he tends to discuss it with his players.
That's why, before the Spurs' Monday preseason defeat at the hands of the Denver Nuggets, a reporter covering the game thought it might be worth asking Pop if he'd talked with his players about the ongoing shutdown of the United States government, which began two weeks ago amid partisan debate over government spending, the Affordable Care Act and an upcoming vote on whether to raise the nation's debt limit; the shutdown has resulted in, among other things, the unpaid furlough of hundreds of thousands of federal employees.
As it turns out, according to Eye on Basketball's Matt Moore,
the shutdown hasn't been an especially large topic of conversation in a
Spurs locker room bent on preparing for another long NBA season ... but
that doesn't mean the coach doesn't have his own thoughts on the
matter:
