The Five Pillars of Popovich

Since Gregg Popovich took over as head coach of the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs 21 years ago, the rest of the league’s teams have replaced their leaders 228 times. No other coach has held his current job for more than a decade. Popovich is a tenured professor in a league stocked with adjuncts. He’s earned this security by compiling an unprecedented track record: Since the 1997-98 season, his first full one as coach, the Spurs have finished with a winning record 20 consecutive times, the only team in history to achieve this, and have won five championships. In that span, San Antonio has had a losing record for a combined 48 days. The next-most-consistent franchise, the Dallas Mavericks, has had one for 839 (and counting).

Popovich’s astonishing performance has occurred even though the NBA runs something of a welfare state, funneling young talent to bad teams through its amateur draft and restraining good teams with a salary cap that makes it difficult to hoard stars. The eight non-Spurs franchises that have won the NBA title since he started have all also endured hopeless losing seasons during that time. The league wants it this way: Having 30 franchises on crisscrossing roller coasters keeps fans in every market engaged.