Teague: Gregg Popovich Is The Greatest Coach In NBA History

Carolina how are you? I'm doing great how are you?

I'm excellent thank you for taking the time to join us. Not the news that you expected to have to report on on a Friday huh? Yeah absolutely not. I'm doing good personally but when it comes to thinking about what the San Antonio Spurs are going through and the changes that's been happening within the organization as of today I'm definitely very very sad and emotional when it comes to that. I actually just cried. I'm just going to be honest with you guys I cried like for randomly. I didn't even think I was going to cry but I did. Hey and unfortunately it happens.

Why so? What did Greg Popovich mean to you? I know you've been covering the Spurs for for quite some time now.

We all saw him you know every now and then he was he would show a warm side and and stand up for some positive things in the community and he would always be a polite jerk to the media. What did you see and know and understand about Greg Popovich? What I saw was the greatest coach of all time and you know growing up young I was and I still am a fan of the Chicago Bulls. You know I'm a fan of the NBA and all teams in general like I just like what you know covering the NBA watching them. So growing up I was always under the the guys that coach Phil Jackson is the greatest coach of all time and arguably he is that's the huge debate who's the greatest coach of all time. Is it Phil?

Is it Pop? I was always team Phil because you know the Scottie and Jordan thing and then you had the the Shaq and Kobe thing that Phil Jackson had going on but as I developed and started growing a relationship covering the Spurs over time I started to really understand that coach Pop is actually the greatest coach of all time and and the reason I say that is because he's had 29 years in the NBA he's had a over 20 plus year streak making the playoffs and he has five championship rings under his belt but what gives him the edge to me is not only that he has a huge edge when it comes to the coaching tree that he's been able to develop throughout the years whether it's coach Becky Hammond who's won two rings with the aces whether it's coach Budd or whoever you can think of he's developed coaches over time who are also championship winners went in their own right once they branch off on their own so that says something about the way he is as a coach and his development and then you look at the other aspect that gives him the edge is that the San Antonio Spurs were essentially built and they didn't necessarily have you know with the exception of the Twin Towers these players that were built and not bought and you know he wasn't gifted being able to coach at a separate team with great players in his hand to coach so I think that gives him the slight edge even though they're both incredible coaches but I look at him as the greatest coach of all time and when you look at the San Antonio Spurs and covering them in media he was tough but it did teach us as media that we need to be fearless and I like I was told the story earlier about how coach pop looked me in the eye I would always look down because he would intimidate me but I started to realize that I needed to look him in the eye and it felt like 20 seconds were the longest 20 seconds of my life but when I look at coach pop down in the eye he started to answer my questions as a sign of respect so it taught me to be fearless in media it taught the San Antonio Spurs fans to love a team and be humble and appreciate that the pounding the rock philosophy of working harder each and every single day just makes you a better person and it makes you stronger in the long run so coach pop not only impacted the game of basketball but he also impacted the media players and fans and people alike so he's gonna be truly missed. Carolina Teague is joining us covers the San Antonio Spurs for the Spurfect blog we got the news today that Greg Popovich is no longer the head coach of the San Antonio Spurs but he is now the president. Mitch Johnson is going to take over as the the full-time head coach he had to take over for Greg Popovich this season unfortunately he had the issue with Victor Webinama where he had the aneurysm. What do we need to know about Mitch Johnson he's not someone who's in the public sphere obviously like Popovich who's been around for 30 years what do we need to know about Mitch?

Well it's great that you asked me that because I own a website called perfect blog and I have three fantastic amazing writers and their names are Casey, Matt and Tyler and what we've gathered as a team essentially because we like to you know pitch out ideas and come up with the best ideas. When it comes to Mitch his career is most I like if you had to give it like a career path that you can kind of mimic off of in the past it would be Eric Spoelstra with the Miami Heat he kind of had a similar come up as Mitch Johnson did he was an assistant coach and then after he was an assistant coach then he just so happened to get into the head coaching space after the his coach Pop if you will was wasn't able to be a coach at the time and that is how he was able to be developed. Now he had received a lot of criticism this season because people would always kind of criticize his rotations that he would do or maybe his timing was a bit off and being able to call challenges at certain times and little mistakes like that that would possibly you know cause the team to lose he would get criticism for that but you kind of got to look at it from like a like a realistic perspective I mean this is a team that's still not bought A and then B it takes time to develop when you are a young coach and you are going to make mistakes everybody makes mistakes when they start something new in life in general so it makes sense that he's had those mistakes and then also it's not like he was you know had the opportunity to have this great team throughout the season the Spurs went through a lot you had Devin Visall who was injured right at the beginning of the season then you had Jeremy Sohan who had injured his finger right when he started getting his reaching his peak during the beginning of last season or this season and then you also saw you know the changes that were made coach Pop had the aneurysm he steps in and then the big trade happens De'Aaron Fox comes into town and then that call ends and Trey Jones go away so he had to kind of readjust then he had to be he has to deal with the veteran presence of Chris Paul who has a very strong personality in Harrison Barnes and so you have all these things you know all these changes and Mitch was able to handle it and he deserves to be head coach. Carolina Teague here with us on the JR Sport Brief Show covers the San Antonio Spurs for the Spurfect block you talk about Victor Winbenyama you talk about Victor Winbenyama we saw Damian Lillard deal with an aneurysm or excuse me a blood clot in his leg and we've seen Victor Winbenyama deal with that kind of in his arm is there any update on Winbenyama we all assume things will be fine correct? So there are rumors of how he what's happening some there's rumors out there that he's had surgery already we have no definitive proof of that but I did speak to some NBA medical doctors who are closely related to you know NBA players and they essentially stated to me the process and it could be he was probably when he got injured or I think it was late February early May if I'm not mistaken they put him on blood thinners the blood thinner situation lasts between one to three months and if they feel like surgery is necessary and a valid thing to do then they will use surgery as a final alternative the recovery processes take about six months and we haven't really heard anything back but it would be great for him to you know come back at the beginning of the season especially since De'Aaron Fox had his surgery a little bit early so they can all be on track by the time the next season comes around. There's no doubt about that I know everybody is eagerly awaiting to see where the San Antonio Spurs will go ahead and pick in the draft as we move forward with De'Aaron Fox and you think about Victor Winbenyama what is the expectation is for them to ultimately you know grow into a contender is it bringing in additional pieces to the San Antonio Spurs are there guys like Stefan Castle he just won rookie of the year like what can we expect from this team next year given that we expect Winbenyama to hopefully be back? I mean I just go with my gut and that's that the Spurs are probably going to build through that's their traditional route there's been rumors that Kevin Durant could possibly come you know down but he's his contract he still has money to be paid out and for the next upcoming season and then he would be a free agent the following year so those rumors don't make sense to me because bringing somebody like KD in when he still has money left over on his contract doesn't make sense to me then you have somebody like Giannis these are big players major superstars and all that stuff but more than likely the teams that are going to be trading for them are going to want somebody like a Steph Castle and because you have to have an attractive deal and the Spurs have a lot of picks that they can give out but at the end of the day it would just be tough to give up two rookies of the year in a row and they're going to want one or the other and you kind of have your non-negotiables so I just see them kind of building a little bit more through the draft because this final year coming up this upcoming draft in 2025 is going to be their best opportunity to get the best picks possible and then it drops off a little bit after the next year so I say they more than likely are going to just chill for the next year that's my prediction. Okay well San Antonio Spurs certainly moving into a different era Greg Popovich no longer the head coach moving full time into the front office as president a Mitch Johnson taking over the full-time job as head coach and everybody waiting to see the full status of Victor Wenbanyama as he is still at the onset of his career. Carolina thank you so much for taking the time to join us where can people follow you all of your work your writings and the Spurfect blog tell us. Yes okay so my website is Spurfect blog you can go to my twitter or my social media on instagram twitter is CT the Mike Slayer I'm also on reality of wrestling WWE Booker T's reality of wrestling WWE ID I'm lead commentator so you can find me on their youtube channel we just almost hit a million subscribers I think so it'd be great and then you can also see me on instagram and tiktok at carolina teak sports I post social media content and I just you know do the things that I love and thank you guys for having me on. No doubt about it Carolina we look forward to chatting with you down the line okay you take it easy. You too thanks for having me.