The Spurs, a justifiably proud franchise, are only two years into their retooling. And everyone in the organization — an organization that won five NBA championships between 1999 and 2014 and contended in just about every other season during that stretch — had to make their peace with it. They’d gone as far as they could go, and just getting into the playoffs isn’t a goal of any worth for them. But that doesn’t mean going through this — the Spurs are 19-55 after giving up 136 to the Wizards on Friday — is easy.
“I knew we were going to have a few years of losing,” Gregg Popovich said pregame Friday.
“But the prospect of, we’re going to have three or four 19-year-olds, and they’re in college for a year or something, it was just exciting in a different way,” he continued. “It was Timmy (Duncan) and Manu (Ginobili) and Bruce Bowen, Tony (Parker), that’s all fun. Winning’s more fun than losing. But that was just a tweak every year. Manage this, manage that, the playoffs would come, and do your thing. And we had our success. But this is a totally different situation, where you really get to watch guys grow.
“I had nothing to do with making Tim Duncan Tim Duncan. He was baked when he got here, after four years at Wake (Forest). Manu was already a European champion. Tony was 19, but he’d played against men for, I don’t remember, two or three years, that kind of stuff. To watch these guys develop (now), just moving without the ball, simple stuff — ‘Why did you go backdoor? No, you have to sprint back; you can’t just go backwards.’ Things that seem silly. Watching them gain discipline, gain a competitiveness that they thought they had, but they didn’t have in college, understanding concepts, team-wise, how it all fits that together. To watch all that grow has been really exciting. But, having said that, there are those nights when you say ‘What the hell am I doing here? Do I need to do this?’ In all honesty. But you go to practice the next day, they’re fired up, they’re ready to go. They play hard every night. We’ve beat some good teams, and we’ll get beat by 25. … overall, I wouldn’t trade it.”
If the Spurs, of all teams, see the value in losing with honor for a greater potential payoff down the road, surely the Wizards can endure 14 days of it, to have the best chance at finally being relevant again and giving its fanbase something to believe in again in a league that has passed them by.
theathletic.com
“I knew we were going to have a few years of losing,” Gregg Popovich said pregame Friday.
“But the prospect of, we’re going to have three or four 19-year-olds, and they’re in college for a year or something, it was just exciting in a different way,” he continued. “It was Timmy (Duncan) and Manu (Ginobili) and Bruce Bowen, Tony (Parker), that’s all fun. Winning’s more fun than losing. But that was just a tweak every year. Manage this, manage that, the playoffs would come, and do your thing. And we had our success. But this is a totally different situation, where you really get to watch guys grow.
“I had nothing to do with making Tim Duncan Tim Duncan. He was baked when he got here, after four years at Wake (Forest). Manu was already a European champion. Tony was 19, but he’d played against men for, I don’t remember, two or three years, that kind of stuff. To watch these guys develop (now), just moving without the ball, simple stuff — ‘Why did you go backdoor? No, you have to sprint back; you can’t just go backwards.’ Things that seem silly. Watching them gain discipline, gain a competitiveness that they thought they had, but they didn’t have in college, understanding concepts, team-wise, how it all fits that together. To watch all that grow has been really exciting. But, having said that, there are those nights when you say ‘What the hell am I doing here? Do I need to do this?’ In all honesty. But you go to practice the next day, they’re fired up, they’re ready to go. They play hard every night. We’ve beat some good teams, and we’ll get beat by 25. … overall, I wouldn’t trade it.”
If the Spurs, of all teams, see the value in losing with honor for a greater potential payoff down the road, surely the Wizards can endure 14 days of it, to have the best chance at finally being relevant again and giving its fanbase something to believe in again in a league that has passed them by.
For Wizards to have hope for future, they'll have to take more L's in present
Washington should be playing to win its final eight games of the season. But fans should be rooting ... for other results.
theathletic.com
