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Total comments: 12timetodienow1234567, on 14 February 2013 - 18:30 PM said:
I guess you can look at it like that. I just think that Pop is the GOAT at coaching and he tells at EVERYBODY so maybe I'm just not recognizing that different coaches can get it done in different ways.
Quote:
SLAM: Can you explain what your relationship with Pop is like?
TP: Oh, it’s a great relationship. Arriving at 19 in San Antonio, and he always pushed me as hard as he can do make the best player I can [be>. It’s been like a father-son relationship. It’s been great. I’ve never had a relationship like that with a coach, where he finally lets you do your thing and gives you enough freedom to let you do your thing. For me, he’s one of the greatest coaches in NBA history.
SLAM: He’s known to be pretty tough. When you first got to San Antonio, at age 19…
TP: Oh, you can ask anybody, any of my teammates, [they’ll tell you> I was the one that got it the most. Sometimes in film sessions it was like The Tony Parker Show. He was so hard on me.
SLAM: Why?
TP: Because he wanted me to be good right away. I was 19, so he had to accelerate [my game>. He was really hard on me. Now he’s laid back. Now he only screams at our young guys. Sometimes I joke with him, like, You’re going soft! [Laughs>
SLAM: When he went so intensely on you back then, were you terrified of him?
TP: No, because he knew how to push my buttons. The people who scream at me—I react even more, I don’t fold. I think Pop knew that and that’s why he rode me, because he knew that I was gonna react, and that I was tough.
Quote:
When Parker came to San Antonio as a 19-year-old from Paris, the lengthy and often painful process of earning his hard-nosed coach's trust began immediately. As Popovich reminisced in a colorful and candid pregame media session on Wednesday, Parker's path to being taken 28th in the 2001 draft included the day he was shown the Spurs' door.
"I was a [jerk> in the beginning," Popovich admitted. "The first time we worked him out, we didn't want him. We sent him away. We just said we weren't interested. I just thought he was unfocused. I just thought he was too cool. I thought he was soft.
"He wanted a second chance, so we brought in some free agents -- frankly, with the idea to beat him up, and we did a workout. The whole workout was on the post. We never put him out on the floor. We did post defense and post offense, and he impressed the hell out of me. He was focused, tough. That was my first indication that he could be coached -- he can learn, he understands, he can take criticism, he's willing to improve and listen. So we drafted him."
But tough love was brutal in those early years.
"'I'm going to just jump on top of you,'" Popovich said he told Parker when he made him a starter early in his rookie season. "'I'm going to get you for every single mistake. We don't have time for you to ease into this.' So he went right in the frying pan."'