NBA FINALS: PISTONS v SPURS

June 10, 2005

Gregg Popovich

COACH GREGG POPOVICH: I didn't really think about it or notice how many shots he was getting. We just tried to guard whatever they were doing and it never really hit me that they weren't going to him that much.

COACH GREGG POPOVICH: We'll see what they do. I don't know.

COACH GREGG POPOVICH: I think the consistency he shows in all the qualities you just described, they are there every night. It's not once in a while, but that hell-bent-for-leather sort of attitude, the willingness to take big shots, the willingness to do what it takes to win and to do it at the highest possible level of intensity, is there every single minute he steps on the court for 82 regular-season games. It's just the way he's built. I never talk to him. I never try to motivate him. I never say a word. I just watch.

COACH GREGG POPOVICH: Well, he's probably not going to score more points than he's scoring. It's a team game and he's not going to be scoring 33 a game or anything like that. I think what he's doing is fine. If he can do this for a whole career, he would be a pretty special player.

COACH GREGG POPOVICH: Not really. You know, Robert's been around so long that we all know exactly what he does and what he's good at. He's got one of those wonderful dispositions and engaging personalities. One wishes or I wish I could be more like him in some ways because he is happy every minute, win, lose, rain, sun, doesn't matter. He's great for a basketball team. Our guys love him. He keeps everybody loose. They all respect his basketball abilities and knowledge, and he's been important for us in that regard. Last night wasn't one of his best games. You know, he's been really good in the playoffs, it wasn't one of his best games but he had private talks with probably four players last night trying to get this guy in gear, let this guy know he wasn't doing this right and he does it in the right way, so he's very important.

COACH GREGG POPOVICH: I basically have decided that he has all the room that he wants.

COACH GREGG POPOVICH: Probably the beginning of the season. It took me a couple of years. You know, we had a lot of talks, knocked heads, you know, as far as me trying to control him and him trying to let me know that in his words at one point it was quote, unquote, "This is what I do." That was his response to things. The more I watched him play, the more film I watched, the more I realized there was going to be a hell of a lot more good doing it his way than my way, and at the beginning of this season, we made the commitment that we're going to eat a couple of turnovers or we're going to eat a bad shot here and there and we're going to see where it goes. And this is where it's gone.

COACH GREGG POPOVICH: No, it was a process that, you know, that was already on its way. Whether the Olympics happened or not, that was going to be the strategy going in, because we had gained a lot of respect and smartened up on our own, I guess, as far as his game is concerned. He came down the road, too. He understood some strategic points about what we couldn't have because it hurt the team. I think I mentioned yesterday, stopping the break high and running up the court, doing that sort of thing, quick threes in transition, the ball had not changed sides yet, that sort of thing. Quick threes in transition right now, Ray Allen is good at that. Quentin Richardson is good at that, Chris Mullin is good at that. I don't think that's Manu's game quite yet. Maybe it will be down the road, but he's agreed to some of those sorts of things. Come game time we just let him go.

COACH GREGG POPOVICH: Well, no matter what I say, a large part of that is good fortune. You know, if you take, whoever, Giricek or Ginobli or Parker or anybody else, we did not know they would end up being what you see now. We were impressed with Manu. I saw him first down in Puerto Rico a few years back. You see some things, and frankly, it's not brain surgery. I mean, he's in the 50s and who the hell are we going to draft in the 50s that's going to help us? So you're looking at a Manu Ginobli, albeit young, skinny, etc., but very competitive and this kid over here who played one year of college or, you know, doesn't go to practice all the time and you look at Ginobli who practices with his national team twice a day during championship tournaments for two, two and a half hours and doesn't blink and runs into the wall for people. You take your chance on somebody like that at 50-something or Tony Parker at 28, and it's worked out. So it's not about really being smart, it's about playing the percentages and then having some good fortune.

COACH GREGG POPOVICH: They were both very important to us, especially Glenn. Since he came back from his mom's funeral, he's been working every day to try to get in some semblance of shape and try to figure out what we were doing. I've got to credit him, you know, going into the game, he wasn't always in the right spot at the right time, but he's a basketball player. He did his best defensively. He got, I guess, about three blocks last night. He rebounded for us and really played a competitive game. Devin tried to do the same thing, he's still not healthy, but he gave us a couple of minutes. I think it was important because I think Brent was in foul trouble and Manu needed to take a break, so they were both important in the first half when we were struggling.

COACH GREGG POPOVICH: I'm not exactly sure about that. We'll see. I did have confidence to put him in last night, but he's not going to break into the starting rotation or anything like that.

COACH GREGG POPOVICH: If I knew, I wouldn't tell anybody else. I'd figure out how to get it to everyone else. I think everybody's an individual. You know some people are more competitive than others, we all know that. I think his is just a special basketball background. His dad was a coach. It's Bahia Bianca, he grew up in an area, it was just like a hotbed, it was like French Lick something like that, everybody grew up playing basketball and they would meet his dad in the gym and they would all play and they would all watch, whenever they would get an NBA film they would watch it or watch a film of a Michael Jordan or something else when he's growing up and it was just a huge dream. It was always in his blood and it was a vision he had basically in the sense that it was all he ever wanted to do. When you have all of his peers doing the same thing and that group stayed together and became successful as we went through the club system in Argentina and they all end up on the national team together, most of them from a similar area, it was just a great pride thing. They just fed off each other I think. They had some God-given abilities, of course, but I think that's the root of it in his case.

COACH GREGG POPOVICH: It's a pretty rare time if I do. Maybe once a year, twice a year, they are really committed to the idea of just practice and playing to get better. We don't talk about how many games we are going to win at the beginning of the year, Division Championship or get a ring. I didn't bring that stuff up, because it's not about that. It's about doing the things on a daily basis that you need to do and doing them consistently, and if you do them, that gives you the opportunity to do some good things and I'm still hoping that we can get better between now, you know, and the end of the series. Because it's a game of mistakes, and we did some things poorly last night, did some things well, and you know, Larry will do the same thing. He's going to get his guys to do certain things better. But because we won doesn't mean we did everything right. That always amazes me where people think the winning team, you did this, did you that and the other team has got to make a gazillion adjustments because they lost. It's never that simple.

COACH GREGG POPOVICH: Yeah, I always put him in the Dennis Rodman category. I think that he has a unique ability, he's smart enough to realize he has a unique ability. He knows he's limited in other ways. He doesn't let that diminish anything about him, and he concentrates on that strength. He takes great pride in it and is professional beyond belief, and it's because he knows that this is his career. That's how he takes it. He's like the guy who wants to be the best doctor, the best plumber, the best lawyer, the best whatever. He wants to be the best at what he does, and I think Dennis was exactly the same way. That's Bruce Bowen.