Tag: Gregg Popovich

Pregame rule likely won’t affect low-key Spurs

By Jeff McDonald

Just before the start of the Spurs’ preseason game at Houston on Sunday, Tim Duncan grabbed the ball and hugged it tight, as is his pre-tip ritual.

Lead official Ken Mauer glanced at a running clock above the Toyota Center baskets and issued a reminder: “30 seconds, Tim.”

In an effort to curb pregame routines it believes are slowing down the game, the NBA this season is emphasizing a rule that allows referees to assess a delay-of-game warning to teams whose dancing and handshaking choreography gets out of hand.

From the time the house lights go up after pregame introductions, teams are allowed 90 seconds to get jiggy. If all five players are not ready to tip off after those 90 seconds, officials can issue a warning.

Long regarded one of the NBA’s most low-key teams, the Spurs don’t expect to be affected by the rule enforcement.

“I had some 89-second handshakes worked out with my teammates,” forward Matt Bonner said. “I had to cut those out.”

Considering that Miami forward LeBron James’ elaborate chalk-tossing routine has become the stuff of shoe commercials, Bonner was asked if the new edict could rightly be called “The LeBron Rule.”

“No comment,” Bonner said. “I’m not going to say anything to get LeBron mad at me.”

Pop’s mediator: When Don Newman left during the offseason to become Randy Wittman’s lead assistant coach in Washington, it left quite a void in the Spurs’ game-day operations.

For seven seasons, Newman was the coach charged with keeping Gregg Popovich from ringing up technicals. Often, when an exchange between Popovich and a referee would get too heated, Newman would physically step between the two men and shepherd his boss back to the bench.

“He didn’t have to work very hard, because I rarely got one,” Popovich said, though perhaps that’s an indication of how good Newman was at his job. “He just acted like he was holding me back all the time.”

Newman has been replaced on Popovich’s bench by former Spur Ime Udoka, who as a member of the Nigerian national team once had to fight his way out of a gym in Algiers.

Here’s guessing Udoka is up to the task.

Habitat help: Not long after Thursday’s practice, three Spurs players zipped off to a construction site on the city’s southwest side, where hammers and hard hats awaited.

Centers Boris Diaw and Tiago Splitter and guard Cory Joseph were among the Spurs Sports Entertainment employees on hand to help with various construction projects in Coleman Ridge, a subdivision developed by Habitat for Humanity of San Antonio.

The event was part of the annual citywide United Way Day of Caring.

jmcdonald@express-news.net
Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN

No surprise: Pop indifferent to new flopping initiative

It came as no surprise that all-business, no-nonsense Gregg Popovich refrained from entering the fray when asked to comment on the NBA’s new anti-flopping initiative.

“I don’t think about it too much,” he said Thursday, and that’s very likely true. This is, after all, a man whose life philosophy can be summed up by one of his favorite phrases: Get over yourself.

He is very much in the minority, however, as evidenced by this massive list of comments compiled by .

Some of the standouts:

Tyson Chandler — ‘There are a lot of guys in the league that are in trouble.”

Kobe Bryant — “Shameless flopping, that’s a chump move.”

Anderson Verejao — “I’m not flopping anymore. I used to flop a little bit.”

Metta World Peace — “It’s the NBA Finals, a new lady is watching and never saw basketball, she sees (flopping) and wonders, ‘What is that?’ She won’t watch the game anymore.”

Whether you like it, hate it or, in Popovich’s case, don’t really care, it is here to stay — at least until January, when most of the NBA’s previous disciplinary crusades seem to have petered out.

Interestingly, it’s Tony Parker, and not Manu Ginobili, who was selected by the NBA to the type of offensive over-embellishment that will (supposedly) no longer be tolerated.

Other examples were provided by Reggie Evans, Dwyane Wade, Josh Smith, and of course, Chris “The Human Tornado” Paul.

In case you missed it, check out on just how difficult it is to catch flop master in the act, even after the fact.

Spurs notebook: Popovich keeps playbook abridged

Faced with the prospect of little practice time during last season’s NBA lockout-condensed schedule, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich approached the installation of his offensive and defensive playbooks with one acronym in mind.

KISS: Keep It Simple, Stupid.

Though blessed with ample time to tinker this preseason — the Spurs are in the midst of a stretch of five consecutive days without a game — Popovich’s theme for this year’s camp might well be KISS II.

“No, it’s not even a goal,” Popovich said Wednesday, when asked if he’s had time to open up the playbook in practice. “We’re trying to be real basic and simple all the way through camp and make sure whatever we’re doing is done well.”

Offensively, at least, it is a question of not fixing what wasn’t broken.

The Spurs were a well-oiled juggernaut in 2011-12, ranking first in the NBA in offensive efficiency and second in points per game.

Defensively, the Spurs were “a middle-of-the-road team,” according to Popovich and the numbers, and their personnel hasn’t changed much since June.

Instead of using new gimmicks to improve on that end of the floor this season, Popovich prefers his team be more disciplined with the same philosophies that were in place last season.

For players such as center Boris Diaw, forward Stephen Jackson and guard Patty Mills — who all arrived after the trade deadline last season — the decision to keep the playbook uncomplicated had led to an increased comfort level.

For now.

“So far, we’re sticking with simple, what we were doing last year,” Diaw said. “But I’m sure as the days go by, we’re going to put more things in.”

Pasteurized, posterized: Power forward Tim Duncan returned to the practice court after missing Monday’s workout with an undisclosed illness.

Reserve guard Gary Neal was not as lucky, calling in sick for the team’s two-hour practice session.

Asked if perhaps there was a bug going around the locker room, Popovich reminded that he is only a basketball coach.

“What am I, Louis Pasteur?” he said.

Mills, who is recovering from a right ankle sprain, was limited to non-contact work.

But he’s no De Niro: Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili worked overtime, filming another installment of their celebrated H-E-B commercials after practice.

Diaw was quick with the quip when asked to critique the acting chops of Parker, his friend and fellow Frenchman.

“Best French actor since — who do you guys know? — since Gérard Depardieu,” Diaw said. “And the guy who got the Oscar for ‘The Artist.’ Dujardin. Jean Dujardin.”

jmcdonald@express-news.net