Gregg Popovich Says International Players are Less Selfish and More Coachable
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There’s a reason that this season, the San Antonio Spurs employed an NBA record 9 players who learned to play the game outside of the USA. Head coach Gregg Popovich finds them to be less of a headache than their American counterparts. Pop argues that foreign players work harder, are easier to coach, and don’t need the limelight as much. Per ESPN: “In the late ’80s, as an assistant coach with the Spurs, Pop traveled to see the European championships in Cologne. The only other NBA coach there was Don Nelson. Pop knew the stigmas against foreign players: They wouldn’t play defense, they wouldn’t socialize, they wouldn’t learn English, they weren’t strong dribblers, they couldn’t handle a reduced role, they were soft. ‘I thought that was really ignorant,’ Pop says now. ‘I couldn’t believe that it was a pool that wasn’t being used.’ Decades later, with Pop’s mentality and some luck, the core of the Spurs — Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, international players all — have helped produce the most consistent winner in the four major sports over the past 15 years, victorious 70.3 percent of the time during that stretch. [...] Consider Pop’s brutal assessment that foreign players are ‘fundamentally harder working than most American kids,’ and it’s no wonder the Spurs want to avoid the fate of so many NBA teams, which are, as Spurs GM R.C. Buford says, ‘the end of the road for the developmental habits that are built in the less-structured environment in the U.S.’
Of course, Pop’s coaching style, as prescient as it is curmudgeonly, isn’t for everyone. He’s demanding and ruthless; his playbook is pick-and-roll heavy, more structured and complicated than European ball but a blood relative. The traits he scouts for — players with ‘character,’ who’ve ‘gotten over themselves, who understand team play, who can cheer for a teammate,’ who ‘don’t make excuses’ — hold true regardless of nationality. The NBA draft, more than the draft in any other sport, is based on potential. With only two rounds, GMs can’t miss, and when Pop looks at American talent he sees many players who ‘have been coddled since eighth, ninth, 10th grade by various factions or groups of people. But the foreign kids don’t live with that. So they don’t feel entitled,’ he says, noting how many clubs work on fundamentals in two-a-day practices, each lasting up to three hours. ‘Now, you can’t paint it with too wide of a brush, but in general, that’s a fact.’ And so it’s no surprise that Pop would rather teach unentitled foreign players to be selfless than try to teach entitled domestic players to suppress their egos. The international kids, he says, ‘have less. They appreciate things more. And they’re very coachable.’”
http://www.slamonline.com/online/nba/2013/06/gregg-popovich-says-international-players-are-less-selfish-and-more-coachable/
Of course, Pop’s coaching style, as prescient as it is curmudgeonly, isn’t for everyone. He’s demanding and ruthless; his playbook is pick-and-roll heavy, more structured and complicated than European ball but a blood relative. The traits he scouts for — players with ‘character,’ who’ve ‘gotten over themselves, who understand team play, who can cheer for a teammate,’ who ‘don’t make excuses’ — hold true regardless of nationality. The NBA draft, more than the draft in any other sport, is based on potential. With only two rounds, GMs can’t miss, and when Pop looks at American talent he sees many players who ‘have been coddled since eighth, ninth, 10th grade by various factions or groups of people. But the foreign kids don’t live with that. So they don’t feel entitled,’ he says, noting how many clubs work on fundamentals in two-a-day practices, each lasting up to three hours. ‘Now, you can’t paint it with too wide of a brush, but in general, that’s a fact.’ And so it’s no surprise that Pop would rather teach unentitled foreign players to be selfless than try to teach entitled domestic players to suppress their egos. The international kids, he says, ‘have less. They appreciate things more. And they’re very coachable.’”
http://www.slamonline.com/online/nba/2013/06/gregg-popovich-says-international-players-are-less-selfish-and-more-coachable/
Comments
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So you tellin me Pop would draft some bony chest euro with a nice fundamental upside over someone like Andrew Wiggins or Jabari Parker? I feel what he is saying but guys like Parker and Ginobili don't come around that often. His coaching is great but so is their talent.
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Popovich isn't the type of coach that should be doubted, he's clearly speaking from experience and expertise.
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RC Buford needs to get more credit than he does, even though he actually took over Pop's job as GM
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numbaz...80's baby wrote: »Coach Pop is old school and wont put up with too much bs. Thats why I think he's retiring when Duncan and Parker does.
Pop ain't goin nowhere, Kawhai has next -
I can co-sign what pop said. Not too many diva international players out there.Most of them wanna just chill at home instead of bein out clubbin
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databasebasketball.com/teams/teampage.htm?tm=SAS&lg=N
I have no doubt Pop knows what he is talkin bout, but if you check their roster history under Pop, most euros he drafted were either traded or only played a few years or made little contribution. He hit the jackpot with Parker and Ginobili. Splitter is doing well also. He takes a chance on the euros, some work out , most do not. -
I can see both sides.
that's why you have players here who think they can dominate the nba with athleticism alone or
because of what they did in HS or on the collegiate level
they have these labels before they have amounted to anything
perfect example Shabazz Muhammed or an Austin Rivers
that 1 and done in the NCAA is really damaging the sport but thats another topic -
4 year seniors>> euro projects
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is tim duncan really an international player tho? kinda weird the article would use him as an example. he's from the us ? islands. and he didn't even play basketball until late in late. and a few years later he was playing at wake forest for about 9 seasons. Tim Duncan would still be the exact same person had he been somewhere up in new york where so many failed basketball players seem to be birthed
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They're also worse.
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He didn't say they were better he said they were easier to coach....
Do ? even read the article? Lolll -
He should've amended that to mean superstar players. He can't be talking about the Chris Andersens, Bruce Bowens, and Nate Robinsons who scrapped and fought their way onto courts with no fanfare that they didn't work to get and who continue to work like dogs to stay on for fractions of what their supposed "superstar" coworkers make.
I can understand how you could say that about dudes like LeBron, Kobe, Marbury, or any cat that can dribble in NYC. If Kobe didn't get broken in LA and rebuilt, he'd probably be J.R. Smith status: talented as ? but so stuck on self that he'd never tap the true core of that talent.
Then again, after sitting in class with scrubs on UofM's basketball team, you'd think these dudes were dropping 30, 10, and 7 nightly with how they'd act only to find out they're averaging .3 pts a game, .5 rebs, and .1 blocks. I can't knock the statement because I know he's been around more ballers than me, so it's whatever. -
He should've amended that to mean superstar players. He can't be talking about the Chris Andersens, Bruce Bowens, and Nate Robinsons who scrapped and fought their way onto courts with no fanfare that they didn't work to get and who continue to work like dogs to stay on for fractions of what their supposed "superstar" coworkers make.
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he was talking about players in generalwhen Pop looks at American talent he sees many players who "have been coddled since eighth, ninth, 10th grade by various factions or groups of people. But the foreign kids don't live with that. So they don't feel entitled," he says, noting how many clubs work on fundamentals in two-a-day practices, each lasting up to three hours. "Now, you can't paint it with too wide of a brush, but in general, that's a fact."
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Pop will go down as one of the best coaches in the NBA....Captain Jack was cut right before the playoffs because Pop wasn't going to tolerate his bs. You either play system type ball and your role or you out.
Pop also takes care of his former players guys like Jacque Vaughan and Ime Udoka got jobs in the NBA cause of him. -
He should've amended that to mean superstar players. He can't be talking about the Chris Andersens, Bruce Bowens, and Nate Robinsons who scrapped and fought their way onto courts with no fanfare that they didn't work to get and who continue to work like dogs to stay on for fractions of what their supposed "superstar" coworkers make.
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he was talking about players in generalwhen Pop looks at American talent he sees many players who "have been coddled since eighth, ninth, 10th grade by various factions or groups of people. But the foreign kids don't live with that. So they don't feel entitled," he says, noting how many clubs work on fundamentals in two-a-day practices, each lasting up to three hours. "Now, you can't paint it with too wide of a brush, but in general, that's a fact."
That's why I said the last part. I've witnessed scrubs with superstar mentality, so I can understand Pop whose had more exposure to way more ballers making that statement. You tell a guy whose accustomed to people thinking he's special because he can bounce a ball and run dragging ass in practice when he's asked to apply himself. It's much easier to take a guy used to being ignored because he'll jump off the building to be looked at twice by anyone of esteem. -
Duncan doesn't fall with the euro crowd imo
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Splitter has no hops at all
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Bet pop wished he had some non international players yesterday..
