When San Antonio won this year’s NBA Draft Lottery, the great prize was Victor Wembanyama, the 7-4 (or 7-5, depending on who you listen to).
After the order was revealed, Wembanyama said that was the team that he wanted to play for and everyone in his circle was hoping he would play for.
It’s not a surprise really. The greatest players the Spurs have had are big men: David Robinson, Tim Duncan and, going back, Artis Gilmore.
But really though, the Spurs got lucky with Robinson and Duncan. Where they didn’t get lucky was hiring good people and keeping them for a long time.
Gregg Popovich has been with the Spurs since 1996. That’s coming up on 30 years, which is almost bizarre by NBA standards.
His teams have always been sound and smart and played very team-oriented basketball. This video is called San Antonio Spurs Tribute - The Beautiful Game.
It starts with Magic Johnson expressing his admiration and goes on to highlight, well, beautiful basketball.
Popovich is 74 now and obviously won’t coach forever. But he should be there long enough to get Wembanyama established and, quite possibly, on the way to greatness.
When he retires, he should write a couple of books. One could just be on the culture he developed in San Antonio and the other could be on coaching two (and possibly three) of the best big men in NBA history.
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