SAN ANTONIO — It appears San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich is still held in high regard by NBA players.
In a recent poll by The Athletic, the soon-to-be Basketball Hall of Famer ranked as the number one coach current players would want to play for not including their current coach.
Popovich tallied 25.3 percent of the votes followed by former Spur and current Warriors coach Steve Kerr with 13.7 percent of the votes.
“I’ve watched him for a long time win a lot of championships,” one player said to The Athletic. “I’ve heard a lot of good things about him. From afar, he has a personality. I want to see what it would be like to play for a coach like that.”
Another player chimed in about Popovich and put it plain and clear: “Who wouldn’t enjoy playing for Pop?”
According to The Athletic, this is the second time Popovich has come out on top in this poll.
In addition, the long-time Spurs coach finished near the bottom of another poll asking which current NBA coach they'd least like to play for.
He netted 3.6 percent of player votes in this category.
This goes to show that despite multiple seasons of missing out on the NBA postseason, Popovich still commands the respect he's earned among players due to his great reputation in the league and for what he's done for the game of basketball.
And he'll be entering the Hall of Fame this summer adding another milestone to his impressive coaching career.
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