There is a trait that separates great coaches like Gregg Popovich, Bill Belichick, Nick Saban, and Mike Krzyzewski from the average coach. And it’s not just “winning”, although the trait certainly leads to more winning.
It’s that they’re never satisfied.
The San Antonio Spurs got a 96-91 win over the Dallas Mavericks on Monday night, giving the Spurs their sixth win in a row and an 11-3 overall record on the season. But, the Mavericks are a depleted team with an NBA-worst 2-11 record, and Popovich expects more out of his team in a game like that, even though San Antonio still came away with a win.
Well, Pop went off about the Spurs’ “very pathetic”, “awful” performance to the media after the game:
Coach Pop with the best rant of the year after beating the worst team in the NBA.
Wait for it… pic.twitter.com/byLZu4eKdQ
— Casey Keirnan (@CaseyKeirnan) November 22, 2016
“That was a pathetic performance on the part of the Spurs. You know, they had some guys out, we had some guys out, but they had a lot more out than we did. I thought we showed a lack of humility, a lack of respect for the opponent, a very pathetic performance at both ends of the court, both in execution and in grunt, in fiber, in desire. It was an awful performance. Oh, and they deserved to win the basketball game. I forgot to say that.”
Amazing. Never change, Pop.
We’ll see if Pop has his team motivated to turn things up a notch in their next game, which will be a very tough one on the road Wednesday against a solid Charlotte Hornets squad.
