“Has this person gotten over themselves?” - Gregg PopovichBrad Stevens is a true student of the game. I suspect that there's no coach in the NBA whom he respects more than Popovich, and thus he emulates both Pop's coaching philosophies and basketball strategies.
The following interview with Popovich was in October of 2015 - so quite a while ago - and I believe this interview was posted here by one of the moderators when it came out. In my opinion it a timeless piece from one of the greatest basketball coaches to ever walk the Earth, whether you like him or not.
Forces of Character: A conversation with Gregg Popovich
http://hoopshype.com/2015/10/13/forces-of-character-a-conversation-with-gregg-popovich/Ever since Stevens was hired, what type of players have we drafted and held on to? What type of players have we acquired through trades? The answer is high-character, hard-working, team-oriented players who have "gotten over themselves" or likely have the ability to eventually do so under Stevens' watch. Ainge and Stevens also have an affinity for for players who are tough and/or play with an internal fire like they have something to prove (or to use Stevens' words, p---ed off players). Smart, Rozier, Crowder - team-oriented, tough, outstanding work ethic. The vets, Johnson and Turner, perform their roles and don't complain when their playing time is cut. Even Zeller, who many people have soured on, is a hard working player who never complained about his diminished role with the team.
And now we have our new stash of draft picks, led by Jaylen Brown, all of whom project to be both highly talented and of high character. We'll see. Perhaps the only player who may not fit the previous criteria is James Young, who had questionable work ethic early in his tenure.
The only real player dissent I can recall since Stevens started was Keith Bogans complaining about his lack of playing time in 2013. Remember what happened to him? Sent home away from the team for good. Good riddance. We don't need that nonsense on the Boston Celtics. That and Rondo, who had that incident with staying behind in LA to celebrate his birthday which Stevens handled well. Traded to Dallas for Crowder. Gerald Wallace did complain a bit at first, but he eventually shut up and admitted his respect for Stevens. Every other player has been on board with the way Stevens does things since then.
Even IT, who is currently our best player, but is fiery and clearly has an ego, admits that Stevens has especially been hard on him. This is
because Stevens understands that he is our best player, and thus he should lead by example. There's mutual respect there, much in the same way there's mutual respect between the Spurs vets and Popovich, no matter how tough Popovich is on them.
Thomas suspects he serves a similar role on the Celtics. Stevens rides his diminutive point guard, who is enjoying his first All-Star season, harder than the others. "He goes at me. I go back at him," Thomas says. "It works."
http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/15356168/brad-stevens-next-superstar-head-coachJon Finkel (interviewer): When your biggest stars like Tim Duncan buy into your system, it has such a trickle-down effect to the team. How can a guy on the bench not participate if the future Hall of Famer is giving his best?
Gregg Popovich: Speaking to that, the other thing I’ll do in practice on a regular basis when we run drills, is I’ll purposely get on the big boys the most. Duncan, Parker, and Manu Ginobili will catch more hell from me than anybody else out there. You know the obvious effect of that. If you do that and they respond in the right way, everyone else follows suit. The worst thing you can do is let it go when someone has been egregious in some sort of way. The young kids see that and you lose respect and the fiber of your team gets frayed a bit. I think it has to be that way. They have to be willing to set that example and take that hit so everybody else will fall in line. It’s a big thing for us and that’s how we do it.
Talent is unquestionably what drives the success of an NBA team. It doesn't matter how good your coaching staff is if you don't have the talent to win games. But you can't dismiss the importance of character and how it influences the culture of an organization. It's not some nonsense storyline created by or for the mainstream media.
I'm not saying we're the Spurs, or that we will mimic the recent success the Spurs have had. We don't have a Tim Duncan on our squad.
But I'm completely on board with the culture we're building in Boston. I can understand if some fans are frustrated with Ainge and the current state of the Celtics (although I do think that such fans are being a bit impatient as we're still relatively early in the rebuild). I wanted a blockbuster trade as much as anyone else on draft night. Nonetheless I'm happy with our influx of young players. I've little doubt that they will fit into the culture we've built in Boston, and that they will ultimately represent the Celtics well both on the court and off.
Topic: The culture of Boston Celtics basketball (Read 1884 times)