Gregg Popovich Quotes (152 Quotes)

It's always great to get somebody else in who's been so successful with it. He's good enough to come down here as his season is about to begin, and we're really thankful he did that.

These sort of challenges is what he loves the most, to go in and teach and make it better,

I think mostly the system is about consistency, ... Our system more than anything is just persistent and consistent with a defensive emphasis. We don't talk about how many games we're going to win, winning a division, winning a championship, none of that stuff. No goals, none like that. Our goal is to get better every day, to practice every day, to treat the game with respect. If we can come out every practice and every game, learning something that we did well or that we did poorly, we can go from there. And then, you know, the way you handle players off the court or around the court that's just an individual thing with every team.

Eliminating back-to-backs when you go in the wrong direction and lose time and go to bed at 4 in the morning for the second game is very difficult for teams, as we have learned. You just can't bring the juice for 48 minutes. It shows in the discipline on the court and the execution on the court. If it was possible to change the entire schedule for everybody to have fewer of those, the quality would improve, without a doubt.

I have no idea. That's a subjective sort of situation. . . . I just know we started out poorly and we got better as the game went along.

That process takes a little bit of time, but he's moving along very quickly and trying to be just as good a distributor as he is a scorer. That's where he made his largest stride this season.

I don't think he has his total rhythm back. The season is getting to the point where he's had all these nagging injuries that we just have to make sure he doesn't get in a rush to get it back.

He is so much better in all those areas that he's become a monster. Nobody can guard him one-on-one, and he knows it. He's been a special player this year.

It was fun to be able to come back and spend time in the film room, showing 'em time after time how those big guys just kicked our butts. It was a great learning experience and gave us some fuel for the long run.

It was a very entertaining game for the fans. And yes, I enjoyed Kobe at the end there as well as the fans. Tony Parker and Michael Finley made shots each time Kobe did. It was nice to see.

We are very happy to have Nick as a part of our team. His leadership and skills will be assets at both ends of the floor.

They know we didn't kick anybody's butt in the playoffs. There are still six, seven teams that can win the championship and we're one of them. But we don't have any illusions about who we are.

Tony hasn't changed a bit in the sense that he's just part of a whole, part of a team. He's been a wonderful example of a young person being able to handle some fame.

We really had to monitor Manu's minutes. But we really needed his energy out on the court.

Defensively, we just didn't play our normal game. And it cost us.

Well, we won a basketball game. They helped us out because they were undermanned. They played more aggressively than we did. They executed better. They were sharper. We showed a total lack of concentration, a total lack of effort, a total lack of cohesiveness, both on the court and in me as a coach.

That's for other people to decide. We approach it exactly as every other year. Our big mantra is boring as hell. We don't want to skip any steps.

We suck on 'D. Both individually and team-wise, we suck. We're pretty consistent that way. I don't know if I have an answer to that. If I did, we wouldn't suck quite so bad.

We just played a great team. I don't know how the hell we did it, but I am thrilled.

I asked them if it wasn't too much trouble, if I wasn't being too pushy, if they could execute what we were trying to do. And if it didn't make them too angry, if they also wanted to play some defense on the other end, that would be great.

Indiana was just as good as anybody but they blew it up. And there are three or four teams out West just like those in the East.

Tim not scoring, he doesn't care. He had six assists and led the team. ... He's unselfish enough to find guys on the floor and let them play.

Timmy is important to us, and we feel it is important for him to know he is important, rather than just giving him a contract and paying him to play basketball. We want him to know we really do care about him. This has been a little tougher than going to France or Argentina, because there's not really a place to play in the Virgin Islands. But the University of the Virgin Islands was so gracious and accommodating, it worked out well. The biggest problem was probably getting everyone there.

If one gets to that number of wins, everybody with half a brain knows why. It's because you've been blessed with a group of players who go out and win a lot of games.

For one to get that number of wins, it only takes half a brain to know why. I've been blessed with a group of players that go out on the court and win games. It doesn't have too much to do with me, but I will keep the ball they gave me.

We were playing a lot closer at the end of the season. They're a little bit ahead of us.

Tim not scoring, he doesn't care. He had six assists. He was our high assist guy. If people want to double-team him, keep him from scoring, they can do that. Luckily for us, he's unselfish and looks to find other guys on the court and let his teammates play. That's worked out for us.

When I came down to St. Croix to see Timmy eight or nine years ago, nobody said a word to me (about driving on the left side), ... I got my rental car and I went out on the road, and I was gesticulating at like 10 people before I realized I was the jerk.

Karl Malone has yet to tell the Spurs whether he will play for them. The Spurs also haven't asked. Yet. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said he would like to make any significant addition to the team no later than shortly after the All-Star break, which ends Feb. 20. The trade deadline is Feb. 24. The more time that goes by the more difficult it is, ... Regardless of whether it's Karl Malone, if we were to make a trade, if we were going to add somebody, I would think you would have to make any changes to your team at the latest by then to give everybody time to integrate.

We're not playing well. It's a miracle we have the best record in the West.

It's the coach's job to make judgments and be critical about players. And Tony has two great attributes He has an ability to handle criticism, and he's a hell of a competitor.

The guy hasn't played in five months or something like that. We're not just going to throw that guy in there just because he's a scorer. ... It's not like I'm going home and beating my head against the wall about how I'm going to get him in the rotation.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich was asked last week how important winning an NBA title was to his good friend Larry Brown . Very important, ... He wants to win one very badly.

We're very pleased that they've taken on a defensive personality and realize that making stops and rebounding are going to be real important to our success, ... They're really sharing the ball, turning from an All-Star team into a basketball team, and that's been Brown's emphasis -- turning them into a team that realizes on the right and on the left is another guy who's as good or better.

In Phil's case, I was personally thrilled he came back, because I think it's huge for the league. When you think about what he's done and how many championships he's won, there's always drama when he comes back in.

He hasn't shot like that thus far, and that's helped us do a variety of things as far as pick-and-roll defense. But when he's making that shot, it makes everything a lot tougher.

He said he wanted to go. We tried to keep him off the court for long stretches, so we were taking him in and out.

They competed harder for more minutes than us. I thought Denver did a good job of making it men and boys for a good part of the game.

He's been important for us. (He's) taking advantage of opportunities and shooting when open. He's been driving, rebounding, just playing good defense.

It's not a goal at all. Our goal is to get better in our play and be as good a team as we can be. We don't set a number. We never have and we never will.

We take (Parker) for granted. He's an All-Star. He had a lot of juice. It's always good to come back from vacation and get a win. We had some rest, as Seattle did too, but we were fortunate to make some shots.

The Clippers got us the last time we were here. Tonight, I thought we were much more aggressive defensively and I think it helped us out. We are thrilled to get this win.

It's been pretty easy in the sense that I have a group that knows exactly who they are and what they've accomplished. We haven't reached some mythical, rarefied level where everybody's afraid of us and they can't touch us. That doesn't exist.

That team that has been plagued in a lot of ways for a couple of years has been playing well.

Im just thrilled that David ends his career with a game like that. His effort was really wonderful. He really dug down deep and showed how important it was for him to help us get this victory.

Larry's always liked challenges and he'll stick with this. He will enjoy, whether they're winning or losing, he will enjoy coaching them. He will continue to coach them every minute of every practice and every game, because that's what he does. He'll be persistent as hell about it, and they'll listen, they'll get better.

We need to play consistent basketball. It is hard to play that many games on the road. We have been successful on this trip in the past and hopefully we will be able to do that again this year.

You have to be quite positive about what he has methodically and very thoughtfully put together. No tricks. No smoke. Just a fundamental approach to being a disciplined club. Creating a defense that's a priority for everyone. Being smart enough to keep all the good things Nellie established and not let his ego get involved in that area. A lot of coaches can't do that.

We don't want to dry up those tendons. If you dry up those tendons, then you have big problems. We'll just have to live with it.

Good basketball teams have to do that if you want to be standing at the end of the year. You have to play through that sort of thing. There are several teams in the league capable of doing that. Hopefully, we're one of them.