NBA FINALS: PISTONS v SPURS

June 22, 2005

Gregg Popovich

COACH POPOVICH: As you know, you don't really glean much information from that. You may think a certain thing, but you have no clue as to whether that's what's really going on. But they were loose. They were loose and joking with each other. You know, paying attention to the shoot around, what we wanted to do and that sort of thing. They looked like the same group to me as usual, you know, talking with each other. Didn't seem uptight or anything if that's what you're referring to.

COACH POPOVICH: Thank you. I want you to be happy. (Laughter).

COACH POPOVICH: You can do my job for me. You already figured it out. What you said is exactly right. For the most part, you are what you are and you do what you've done all year long, because that's what you do well. At the same time, what would be foolish, not to notice what's going on in the games and what adjustment you might have to make and what you said is very accurate. So we're going to do the things we've done all year, but with some adjustment in the hope that we can do a better job with their guards. Absolutely.

COACH POPOVICH: I'm sure it does. I should have left. (Laughter).

COACH POPOVICH: That's definitely a possibility, something that we might do. Obviously we've done it before, and depending on how the games go and how Chauncey is doing, how Tony is doing, we very likely might do that.

COACH POPOVICH: It's okay. I having in else to do. (Laughter).

COACH POPOVICH: I think without a doubt they do. You know, just like nobody really cares what happened during the regular season; it's what teams did in the playoffs. That's how they are regarded, if they went deep into the playoffs or they won a championship. I think the great players legacies all are built around that, how many championships they have, whether they were the MVP of the deal, how did they play in the important games. I think that's true. That's fair.

COACH POPOVICH: As you might guess, sure, we talk about, you know, why we're here, you want their confidence to stay strong, you want them to feel -- to understand how they got here and that they did a hell of a job to get here; that they deserve to be here. And then it's 3-3, there's one game left in the season, and basically, you want them to play such that they will remember it well when they are older; that they did everything they can do to help their team win. And that's really the emphasis, to enjoy themselves, to have fun, to lay it on the line, to just come as competitors, not as thinkers, not as people who are going to invent the light bulb, but come to play and be proud of what you did on the court in that sense, and usually everything else follows. So we've talked about that to varying degrees, but other than that, just staying loose and keeping the same sort of routine.

COACH POPOVICH: Right. I have not mentioned that a bit in the last 48 hours or whatever. Given a choice, any player, any coach would say, "I'd rather play at home." To say something different doesn't make much sense to me. But talking about, you know, fool's gold or whatever, that applied in the past when you have opportunities before that, but it's not about that now.

COACH POPOVICH: Well, Timmy is always the focal point. It doesn't mean that he's going to get the ball every time. He'll get more touches tonight than he did in Game 6. But whether he has the ball or not, you know, he attracts attention, he's doing what he's supposed to do on the court. He's keeping the court spread. He's also rebounding, playing defense, doing that sort of thing. So it's not just about his scoring. He's playing an all-around game, and when push comes to shove, most of the time he's got the basketball. We also have Manu Ginobili on the team who has done a great job, a lot of late-game situations for us. So it's not necessary for it to always be in Tim's hands, because Manu has been so successful in his own right at the end of basketball games, also. So I think if Timmy doesn't have the ball in some situations, for people to say, well, you know, why didn't Timmy assert himself, blame Popovich, because Popovich probably gave it to Ginobili. He's out there and he'll take the ball any time, he'll look for it, he'll demand it at times when he knows it's time, but he also respects what Manu can do.

COACH POPOVICH: Sure, we've been out several times, all the time, many times, whenever. But last night was real special for both of us, so we spent time together and talked very little about basketball, which is awkward because that's all we ever do. (Laughter) We haven't talked much about why we're on the planet or what our fate might be upon death and what happens to an individual at that point. It's always napkins and salt shakers and all of the stuff that doesn't matter, drawing things, stealing from each other. But this was mostly talk about, you know, family and the NBA deal and now we're going to go to summer camps and you start talking about the draft and players and all that, really.

COACH POPOVICH: We did have wine.

COACH POPOVICH: I think in large part, one has to think about, you know, is it your own personal -- I go with the Joseph Campbell philosophy myself where some things are accurate, and some things are based on myth and I think you have to make your own personal decision based on what you believe and most of that's based on the way you grew up and the associations you have after that point. I don't think you've got a chance. (Laughter) I think you're gone when you die. (Laughter).

COACH POPOVICH: No. If it's a slow, slow pace, it will be instant death. It's just going to be awful. For us to win this basketball game, it has to be more of an up-tempo deal.

COACH POPOVICH: I think it was a Pomona-Pitzer, Claremont game 16 years ago.

COACH POPOVICH: That wasn't seven games, was it? Did I misunderstand the question?

COACH POPOVICH: Oh, when I was Larry's assistant.

COACH POPOVICH: I think that -- I don't think that was the seventh game.

COACH POPOVICH: Was it really? Is that right?

COACH POPOVICH: That really makes me -- Shawn still could have cut to the bucket, give Rodney a little slack. There's Shawn, there's nobody guarding him, why couldn't he cut to the bucket, if he would have cut it would have been a great pass, you'd say, that Rod, he's really slick, he's really something.

COACH POPOVICH: I don't know. Got no clue. (Laughter).

COACH POPOVICH: It's important that he be on the court and have his energy at the end of the game. And the way he plays, the pace at which he plays, it's very difficult for him to play nine minutes in a row or a whole quarter, that kind of thing. Considering what he's been through body-wise for the last few summers, I mean, his team, like us, his team in Argentina practices. They have got a game that night and they pack for two and a half hours that morning at contact and they go do it and go play. So he's been used to that for the last two or three summers and doing all that. The way he plays, he's going to get bumped and hit and all that. So his body needs as much rest as possible. For him to rest over two days off and the third day was the game all through the playoffs, of course, we would all be sick by then of basketball, as if it's not getting close already. (Laughter).