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San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich questions a call during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Indiana Pacers, Monday, Feb. 13, 2017, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)
San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich questions a call during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Indiana Pacers, Monday, Feb. 13, 2017, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)
Philadelphia 76ers head coach Brett Brown, left, meets with San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich after the Spurs’ 111-103 win on Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2017, at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. (Yong Kim/Philadelphia Daily News/TNS)
Philadelphia 76ers head coach Brett Brown, left, meets with San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich after the Spurs’ 111-103 win on Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2017, at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. (Yong
San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich calls to players in the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Memphis Grizzlies, Monday, Feb. 6, 2017, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/Brandon Dill)
San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich calls to players in the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Memphis Grizzlies, Monday, Feb. 6, 2017, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/Brandon Dill)
Gregg Popovich is a complex individual who hold certain tenets as almost sacrosanct.
Loyalty is one of them. Popovich’s respect for his former boss and mentor, Curt Tong, was highlighted in a fabulous story by Tim Layden on SI.com entitled “The Man Who Made Pop and Me.”
Layden played college basketball under Tong at Williams College in the mid-1970s. Later, Tong worked as the athletic director at Pomona-Pitzer with Popovich as his head basketball coach from 1983-86.
Tong passed away in January. Layden writes eloquently on the effect his association with Tong had both on himself and Popovich.
“He’s a great friend, a great mentor,” Popovich told Layden in the story. Somebody I love very deeply and miss very, very much.
“I can read people pretty quickly. Who is full of themselves? Who has gotten over themselves? Who is altruistic and who is not? From the first day I was around Curt, I believed he was a better person than I was. That’s not a humble act or anything, that’s just a fact. His demeanor, his kindness, his love of people, yet at the same time his ability to be disciplined and to have standards, and to demand that standards be kept. That’s a fine line for a lot of people, but Curt did it with grace and intelligence. When you meet a guy like that, you want to be in his presence.”
The story runs much deeper than just basketball for Popovich, who clearly enjoyed his time as a small-college basketball coach working with Tong.
“I really enjoyed the campus life,” Popovich said. “I enjoyed faculty committees, and I participated in a lot of them. And a lot of the reason is because Curt encouraged me to do it. It made my life so much fuller, and my experience became so much broader than just athletics.
“What’s the word? Serendipitous? It’s serendipitous that I wound up in the NBA. But for me, it would have been serendipitous, and just as wonderful, to have stayed at Pomona for the rest of my life. I loved it. I still miss it.”
It’s an interesting story that highlights one of the most important people in Popovich’s life. And it provides an interesting and intimate look at the Spurs coach that is seldom seen.
Tgriffin@express-news.net
Twitter: @TimGriffinBig12
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