San Antonio Spurs’ Gregg Popovich named as the coach of the year - NBA Update
On May 1st, San Antonio Spurs’ Coach Gregg Popovich (AKA Coach Pop) became the recipient of Red Auerbach Trophy as the 2011-12 NBA coach of the year.
Spurs finished the regular season with a league best 50-16 record and switched hands with OKC late in the regular season to become the top seeded in West. The reason behind their success is Gregg, whose big-picture logic and team
balance strategy steered Spurs to a tremendous regular season victory.
The 63 year old has been nominated for the esteemed award for 2nd time in his career, the 1st came back in 2003, the same season when Spurs’ won their 2nd championship title.
The criterion for the selection is based upon the performance in a single season and Papovich shined amongst the rest. The other frontrunners included Tom Thibodeau of Chicago Bulls, he led Chicago to the same record without Derrick
Rose and also became the fastest coach to bank 100 victories he was nominated 2nd. While Frank Vogel of Indiana Pacers stood 3rd he also led his team into the playoffs without Dwight Howard.
Apart of Gregg’s team unmatched performance the way he rotated his key players helped him to stand tall. Pop successfully instilled a trusting culture in his team, that allowed him to win games with his key players Tim Duncan,
Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker on the bench. He kept on rotating the play between his starters and benchers. Moreover he devised his offensive scheme around Tony Parker allowing him to be more lethal.
These were few of the salient’s that compelled the panel of 119 sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the States and Canada to credit him with 467 points, including 77 1st position votes.
One of the biggest achievements for Pop is to keep the team together the continuous shuffling and rotation might have browned off any other player with a celebrity status in the team. But not in Spurs they have vested their complete
confidence in the coach and in return he led them to such glory.
This is his 16th season with San Antonio and under his stewardship they have won 4 championship titles. They are on route to grab the 5th as Spurs finished the regular season with a 10 game winning streak.
After receiving the coach of the month award for February and March it was obvious that he will be the coach of year. He has collected 14 coach of the month awards in his career. He took over the Spurs’ coaching responsibility
in 1996. That makes him the longest tenured coach in NBA and all other big four sports leagues.
Under the aegis of Popovich, Spurs have routed Utah Jazz, 106-91 on Monday night. They are fighting for the title and with Pop’s vision and team’s effort they have established themselves as the most worthy championship contenders.
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