Gregg Popovich never thought about tanking as an option for the Spurs: ‘It’s not who I am’
Gregg Popovich easily could have led his team down a path and tanked during the second half of the season.
It’s not hard to argue that it would have been beneficial for him and the San Antonio Spurs in the long run to have done so, too.
Yet on Sunday night, ahead of their final game of the regular season, Popovich said that was simply never an option for him.
“Part of it is, it’s just not who we are. It’s not who I am,” Popovich said, via Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News. “I can’t operate like that. Which might not be the most intelligent overall philosophy to have, and I get that. But we am who we am. We’re going to go ahead and compete.”
After a tough start to the season, the Spurs rallied and secured the final spot in the postseason play-in tournament earlier this month. That, paired with the Lakers' late-season struggles, got Popovich back in the play-in for the second straight year. They’ve gone 7-3 in their last 10 games, too, and will take on the New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday night.
That run, with a very young roster that doesn’t have a true star like most of Popovich’s previous teams, is undoubtedly impressive. Getting them to that point, though, was the only thing he was willing to do.
“I think the young players gain a real understanding of a philosophically moral space where it’s the right thing to do, to continue to compete,” Popovich said. “Frankly, I don’t know how I would go to my team and say, ‘OK guys, we’re not going to compete the way we should,’ or how you’d get that across, or with a wink and a nod. I think you do the players a disservice if they’re not able to go out and perform at the best of their ability.
“I think the lessons to be learned are very important as their careers advance. You hope that in the long run, that value they gain from that will help them compete at an even higher level later. I understand the opposite, I just can’t do it.”
While Popovich’s mindset is a noble one, it’s not one that’s necessarily universal across the rest of the league.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver has been trying to curb taking or the strategic resting of star players for years. He spoke about it earlier this month, too, and actually credited the play-in tournament as one of the things to help stop teams from tanking in order to get a lottery pick in the draft.
Though Popovich likely has plenty of ideas that could help shape the future of the league, he’s keeping them to himself for now. Silver, he said, has things under control.
“Adam and his staff are pretty smart people,” Popovich said, via ESPN’s Tim MacMahon. “If there was a silver bullet in that regard, they would have already shot it.”
