Pop Quote

"If there is no humor, there is no ability to take criticism or handle embarrassment. We really are big believers in getting over yourself. If you're taking away from the group, you don't need to be here. It's that simple."

-Gregg Popovich

San Antonio Spurs keep doing it their way

Nice article in the L.A. Times this weekend about the San Antonio Spurs and their overall success in the last 10 years. They are one of only four NBA teams to win four titles in nine years, with the others being the 60's Celtics, 80's Lakers, and 90's Bulls. Their success, according to this article, is based on persevering through the ups and down of any season:

Other teams get giddy when they win and disconsolate when they lose.Whatever happens, the Spurs do the same thing: They persevere.

"We've had several years when we started slowly," coach Gregg Popovich said.

The Spurs don't boast, feud, blame referees, say the word "disrespect," protest at being called a boring team that murders TV ratings.They don't say anything too colorful, or face the Wrath of Pop. If one ever ripped a teammate, Popovich might tear the S-A-N A-N-T-O-N-I-O off his warmups.

The article goes on to talk about the "Spurs Way", which is a set of prinicpals some of which including putting the team first and playing defense. As the article says:

Their entire philosophy comes from a quote from 19th Century social activist Jacob Riis, which Robinson (Former Spur David Robinson) found and is now posted in the dressing room in English, French, Spanish, Serbian and Turkish.

Look at a stone cutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred-and-first blow it will split in two. . . . It was not the last blow that did it, but all that had gone before.
-------------------------------------------------------------

Their overall philosophy is simple: Through the ups and downs of any season, if you stick to the fundamentals and the core principals of the team concept, things will work out for them.

Keep playing hard, keep playing smart, and keeping playing together!

Family Atmosphere

From Henry Abbott at TrueHoop:

He'd brought a suit on the road trip, just as all the Spurs had been told to do. And now he was on the charter with the others, flying during the night from Cleveland to New Orleans.

Anthony Tolliver, on the cusp of finally earning a place on an NBA roster, likely wondered if this was normal. The Spurs really go to funerals together?

The next day Tolliver followed his teammates into a church near Jackson Square. There they attended services for Simone Newman, the wife of Spurs assistant Don Newman, and this remarkable gesture earlier this month sums up Gregg Popovich and the culture he has established.

If Tolliver didn't fully appreciate the culture then, he will soon enough. Last week he was on another plane flying to another funeral.

His mother, Donna Lewis, 56, a single mother of three and a teacher, died of an apparent heart attack.

Tolliver will miss opening night, and he will miss much more. But just as the Spurs boarded their charter to support Newman, they will be there for Tolliver.

Specifically, Ime Udoka will be there.

Udoka had been around three other NBA teams before he came to San Antonio, and he says he immediately saw the Spurs were different. “Night and day,” is how he puts it.

This isn't just about funerals, and the Spurs aren't the first to mourn together, either. When the brother of Larry Hughes, then with Cleveland, died, the Cavaliers stopped to pay respects during the 2006 playoffs.

Still, perhaps no NBA team is more plugged into the human element than the Spurs are in this era. When Michael Finley isn't throwing a Thanksgiving banquet at his house, then there are quiet evenings.

Udoka, for example, dined at the Newman house last season.

Popovich always pushed for this, from family-friendly charters to watching presidential debates with his players. He's led them on field trips, too, including one a few years ago to the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C.

Popovich wants to do the right thing, but there's strategy involved, too. His thinking: If he can get his guys out of the work place, and if they learn to be supportive, and if the young ones watch the old ones, then maybe this closeness translates to the court, too.

Again, it's sincere, and it was for Newman. The Spurs' plane arrived in New Orleans at about 1 a.m., and Popovich and some of his staff stayed up talking with Newman until 5.

Udoka embraces this sentiment, and that's because he has his own story. Two years ago, after playing around the world and being cut by several NBA teams, Udoka was trying to make the roster of his hometown Portland Trail Blazers.

The only Blazer who didn't play in the first preseason game that year, Udoka was told he would start the second. He informed his father, Vitalis, who made arrangements to attend. Hours before, Vitalis died suddenly of complications from diabetes and high blood pressure.

The date was Oct. 17. Two years later, on exactly the same date, was Simone Newman's funeral. Udoka shared this with his coach as he consoled him, as well as what came next for Udoka in 2006.

Udoka missed the preseason game he was supposed to start, but he returned for the next one. He says he was glad to have basketball to come back to.

“It was a safe haven,” he said.

It was too soon to be alone. And in a locker room, with an immediate task at hand, Udoka found a way to counter the grief.

“I wanted to use his memory as motivation,” he said. “The game freed my mind.”

The next game Udoka scored 16 points. He started the next and scored another 16. On the day of his father's funeral, he signed a contract and was officially a Blazer.

Udoka still can't believe the cruel timing. Couldn't his father have been around for just some of his success? Tolliver will ask the same questions.

Still, Udoka says he found a path. There was a way to grieve, and there was a way to play, and the two seemed to mix.

Udoka says he plans to talk about this again.

As soon as Tolliver comes back.

2007 Season Theme San Antonio Spurs

1.) Expect nothing. Ask for nothing

2.) Do not give in

3.) Do not be in a hurry to win. Win in 48 minutes. Trust our system

4.) Support and play for your teammates