SAN ANTONIO — After winning five NBA titles, being named the NBA's Coach of the Year multiple times, a Basketball Hall of Famer, and owning the league's winning record as a head coach, San Antonio Spurs' Gregg Popovich would still be considered among the top coaches.
However, CBS Sports thinks otherwise.
Recently, CBS Sports released its head-coached rankings, and Popovich dropped out of the top 10 and landed at No. 14.
"I am not wavering from that stance one bit. His contributions to the game cannot be limited to a single blurb. Attach any superlative to him that you want. He deserves it. He's also been coaching the Spurs for almost 30 years," CBS Sports posted. "The game has changed a lot in that time, and we're ranking the best coaches in the sport today. Popovich's recent performance leaves plenty of room to believe that he's declined a bit from his peak."
The article points out that Pop has had the Spurs out of the postseason since 2017, questioned his decisions (namely, placing Jeremy Sochan at point guard last season), and stated he leaned on Tim Duncan a lot to build his reputation.
"For two decades, Popovich had Tim Duncan to essentially serve as his avatar both on the court and in the locker room. Nobody ever acted out in San Antonio because Duncan set the example not to," CBS Sports wrote. "Popovich could coach everyone on the team as hard as he wanted to because Duncan let him coach him that way."
"[W]e don't quite now Popovich would handle a modern contender because he hasn't really had one. What happened with [Kawhi] Leonard and [LaMarcus] Aldridge was far, far more complicated than a coaching failure. It's just that we mostly brush over those failings as outliers when Duncan was probably an outlier as well."
There's no denying the Spurs have been out of playoff contention for years, but all pro teams have ups and downs. It's simply the cycle of sports teams.
In addition, Pop can't tell Duncan (nor Manu Ginobili or Tony Parker) not to retire; he couldn't have expected Leonard's fallout with the team and he does not serve as General Manager.
Also, Pop has been very open about how Duncan made the Spurs win titles, not him.
In addition, the Leonard situation set back the franchise as a whole, and losing a franchise player of that caliber would set back any NBA coach.
Factor all that, and of course, there's been some lean years in San Antonio and for Popovich.
But the future is bright with Victor Wembanyama on the roster, a multitude of draft picks in the team's war chest, and much financial flexibility to make moves to push the Spurs back to the top of the league with Pop and after he retires.
It should be noted that CBS Sports did complement Popovich, calling him a "living legend" and "the greatest basketball coach that has ever lived."
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