Pop: Duncan's retirement left 'a big hole in my belly'
Tim Duncan and Gregg Popovich forged one of the most indelible, most successful player-coach partnerships the NBA has ever seen.
Over 19 years, they led the San Antonio Spurs to 12 division titles, six Finals appearances, and five championships. They won at least 50 games every season but one: the lockout-shortened 1998-99 campaign in which they went 37-13 and won the title. Popovich won three Coach of the Year awards. Duncan won two regular-season MVPs and three Finals MVPs. They frequently credited each other for their own successes. Duncan never knew another NBA coach. They were symbiotic almost to the point of synonymy.
It was long believed that the two would ultimately leave the game together. But Duncan announced his retirement last week, and Popovich remains - though not without a profound sense of loss.
"There's a big hole in my belly," Popovich told ESPN's Ramona Shelburne during USA Basketball's pre-Olympic training camp in Las Vegas on Tuesday.
"I think about the culture and his humor. I've been used to that for 20 years and now it's gone. I have to find that in some other way, some other power, some other player. I have to do something. But life goes on for all of us."
On top of continuing to coach the Spurs, Popovich agreed in October to coach Team USA for four years, from 2017 through 2020. With the team now in the hands of a new two-man nucleus in Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge, Popovich says he feels obligated to stick around for the foreseeable future.
"You know what happened? I just got roped in," he said. "I had to keep making promises. Manu (Ginobili) was going to sign a few years back and he was like, 'Are you going to be here?' Tony (Parker), then Kawhi. Then when we were recruiting LaMarcus, he was like, 'Are you going to be here?' it just goes on and on. So I guess I can never stop, I can never retire."
Given the cache Popovich carries around the league, and given the fact that he just led the Spurs to their best-ever regular season in Duncan's age-40 season, it's safe to assume those prospective free agents will keep asking.
Popovich hopes one day he'll learn to say no.
"There's gotta be some time when we're trying to sign a free agent and he goes, 'Pop, are you going to be here?' and I say, 'Nope, I'm leaving next week.'"