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What were the strategies that Greg Popovich employed to win 5 championships and to make the playoffs for 18 straight years?
Culture
The San Antonio Spurs are built like an efficient business where each part of the organization is marching toward to same goals.
Popovich uniquely builds trust and relationships with his players, and the organization is able to identify talent wherever it may be.
One of the key methods that the San Antonio Spurs use to achieve constant success by having stability in its leadership group. Everyone in the organization understands their role, and understands how things are to be done.
It should be noted that the 2014 NBA Champion Spurs were the first team since the ABA-NBA merger in 1976 not to have a single player average more than 30 minutes per game. In other words, Popovich relies on his starters less and his bench more than anybody in decades.
Popovich was among the first to recognize the talent available to the NBA internationally. Biases and cultural misunderstanding caused executives around the league to ignore many players that could have contributed to the team’s success. “I thought that was really ignorant,” Popovich told ESPN about how international players were viewed. “I couldn’t believe that it was a pool that wasn’t being used.”
International players are now common in the league, and the San Antonio Spurs led the way in finding players who can contribute to a championship caliber team.
Steven Koblik, a friend of Popovich and the Former President of Reed College in Portland, “It is not sufficient to say merely that Gregg is smart. He is also intellectually curious,” Koblick told the magazine. “Now, you combine that with basketball smarts and street smarts and add someone who’s a very good judge of people, and that makes for a very unusual person.”
As the coach of the team, Popovich understands that it’s his responsibility to connect with his players, to bring them into the Spurs culture, and to make sure that they have a strong relationship with him and the other players. One way that he does that is by talking to them about things outside of basketball. By talking to them about their interests and their life outside of the court, he shows the players that he truly does care about them. This interest in their lives creates the foundation for their solid relationship.
Assistant coach Ettore Messina wrote that the demanding nature of Popovich’s personality is based upon the care that he has for everyone in the organization. “Coach Popovich has this rare ability to combine his demanding nature with the most sincere care for everybody in the organization,” writes Messina. “Players, management, coaches, doctors, physiotherapists – he cares about all of them. And that makes everyone proud to be a part of the organization. This is family first, basketball club second.”
Popovich models making a connection with your team members—the foundation of trust, which lies at the heart of team building.
Performance
To evaluate the performance of the San Antonio Spurs, you must look at the work ethic and preparation that make the Spurs the most fundamentally sound team in all of professional sports.
Popovich is a well-read leader, who is influenced by a variety of perspectives. Consider this quote from Danish-American social reformer Jacob Riis that plays an important part of Popovich’s thinking, “When nothing seems to help, I go back and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it – but all that had gone before.”
Popovich uses that quote to emphasize relentless effort to his team. Popovich explained, “I thought it embodied anyone’s effort in any endeavor, really. It doesn’t have to be basketball. It can be a musical instrument or it can be learning mathematics or going to law school or figuring out how to turn the water off in your house because you’re an idiot. If you can’t figure that out you just keep looking, keep trying, keep going.”
The emphasis on hard work and doing what is necessary lies at the heart of Gregg Popovich’s coaching. As the quote by Riis makes clear, you can’t break the rock unless you take all of the steps that are needed.
In order to not skip any steps, it means that the Spurs must start from the very beginning. As anyone who attempts to master any skill, the fundamentals must be strong before you can advance. And that is exactly what the Spurs do every season.
One of the major messages coach Popovich sends out to his players: techniques are much more important than tactics.
The Spurs long-standing success is largely attributable to their ability to adapt to the environment. “You got to keep up with it, because teams change, players’ careers change and the makeup of the team changes,” Popovich told the Washington Post. “Standing pat never works.”
Popovich is both a visionary and a pragmatist, and it has been noted that “those are really hard to be at the same time.”
Popovich encourages his players and his staff to constantly offer their suggestions and ideas to make the team better. When crafting game plans, he encourages dialogue, discussion, and insight. One writer observed, “What’s interesting is that he always pushes his coaching staff to argue with him. Sometimes he reminds me one of those Greek philosophers, the sophists, who tried to find the truth through arguments. He really encourages discussion and variety of opinions, seeing them as a means to improve as a unit.”
Popovich also encourages resiliency, which is the ability to bounce back from disappointment—a skill that everyone needs to develop. Once—after losing in the NBA Finals—Popovich asked his players to focus on what they could control. By focusing on things that they could improve upon, the Spurs took control of their own destiny.
Popovich reminded his players of the incredible opportunity they had to be able to compete for a championship, let alone play basketball for a living. He reminded them that even though they may have fell a little short of winning the championship, they were still very fortunate to even have the opportunity to play at the biggest stage.
Then, he asked them, “Are you putting in the work and not skipping any steps?” All too often, we tell ourselves that we are working smarter, but really we are just being lazy. The Spurs go over the fundamentals at the start of every training camp and put in the time and effort to be successful. Although the 101st blow to the rock may break it, you need those first 100 blows to get it in position to break.
Remember, the key to being resilient is to focus on the steps that you control.
Keys Takeaways
- Have a strategy, a structure to implement that strategy, the people who can carry out that strategy, and the process to accomplish it.
- Stability in management and within the organization can be beneficial. If you have the right people in place, a culture of excellence can grow.
- In order to avoid stagnation, debate and new ideas must always be allowed. This is especially the case when a core group of people have been with the team for a long period of time.
- There is talent in overlooked places. Be sure to notice any biases that you may have when selecting people.
- Pay attention to the rules and regulations of your field. If you can adjust to them quicker than others, you’ll be able to gain an advantage.
- Being aware of issues and topics outside of your field is not a waste of time. It allows you to be curious about other people’s lives, which serves as the foundation of a trusting relationship.
- Technique is more important that tactics. Having strong fundamentals allows your team to be able to adjust and adapt quickly.
- There is no skipping steps. You must put in the work.
- Focus on what you can control and improve upon. Don’t let missed chances, closed defeats, or heartbreaking losses linger in your mind. Focus on the specific things you can do to improve.
- Be grateful for the opportunities you have to compete.
Conclusion
Gregg Popovich has won 5 championship titles (1999, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014) by caring about his players. He solidifies his relationships by being interested in their lives, their values, and their beliefs.
“Relationships with people are what it’s all about. You have to make players realize you care about them. And they have to care about each other and be interested in each other. Then they start to feel a responsibility toward each other. Then they want to for each other,” Popovich explained.
