Misc Tony Parker: Gregg Popovich's coaching bordered on abuse: "I sometimes had tears in my eyes in the shower after practice"

[spursparker9]

Tony Parker says Gregg Popovich's coaching bordered on abuse: "I sometimes had tears in my eyes in the shower after practice"

Parker pulls back the curtain on Popovich’s coaching methods.

sports.yahoo.com

In his book “Beyond All of My Dreams,” the six-time All-Star admitted that his rookie season was so difficult it nearly broke him.

“From my first NBA practices, Gregg Popovich was really hard on me. ‘Get your head out of your a-s!’ He cursed a lot and said other crazy things. It wasn’t easy to handle. During my rookie season, I sometimes had tears in my eyes in the shower after practice. I told myself, ‘I’ll never be able to satisfy this coach. He’ll never be happy.’ All he did was push me. Push me to test my limits. But there were never limits,” Parker said.

‘It sometimes bordered on abuse with me. There’s no denying it — Pop helped me a lot. It’s still hard to say what my career would have been like with another coach. I think I still would have had a great career. He surely helped me to outdo myself at certain times. I think that we helped each other and that we pushed each other,” Parker added.



I know it is quite well documented of Pop's tough coaching on TP during his early years. Even Pop himself also admitted during TP's jersey retirement night that he (Pop) will probably be arrested if he tried the same coaching on today's players.

I recalled TP also got reveal that Timmy did not even talk to him during his rookie year. It must be tough for TP coming in at 19 years old (as a foreigner) and get treated like that from his Head Coach and MVP teammate.

Pop's tough coaching seems to be on TP only. I don't recall any other rookies (e.g. Manu, Beno, George Hill etc) that said something near this level of tough coaching from Pop.

Ultimately, kudos to TP being able to persevere through and also thank you to J-Kidd's ex wife for resulting in J-Kidd deciding NOT to sign with us in the 2003 off season. Manu will sure be gone and TP will be demoted to backup PG and who knows, might get traded eventually

 

[Ni-G]

It's on another scale but Mitch keeps Dylan on much shorter leash then Castle. I am all for it if it's going to make him better.

 

[Thoodee]

while that era produced some of the greatest, i always felt it also produced some the most knuckle headed players that ever played the game. Tp might have always fell into that former category even w/o pop, but having a coach w mitchs style back then think would have lead to the animals taking over the zoo. Young adults today i feel have a better understanding of whats important and not overindulging.

 

[ulosturedge]

It's on another scale but Mitch keeps Dylan on much shorter leash then Castle. I am all for it if it's going to make him better.

Mitch is doing the right thing. He is making sure Castle establishes himself as a point guard first. If he played Harper at the 1 over Castle that would undermine Castles's development. Harper I believe is a natural 1, but he is getting the treatment all Spurs players get. "Show me you can play defense and I'll give you minutes". I am sure year 2 Harper will get to run the Team more. Again, I think this is more about not stunting Castles growth, then denying Harper his opportunities.

 

[Mugen]

Pretty sure Pop was harder on Porky than anybody else during his head coach tenure tbh. To Parker's credit, it sounds like he used the "abuse" properly and was pretty coachable throughout his career.

 

[Ice009]

Pretty sure Pop was harder on Porky than anybody else during his head coach tenure tbh. To Parker's credit, it sounds like he used the "abuse" properly and was pretty coachable throughout his career.

Yeah, I think he really dialed it up for TP because he probably thought TP had a lot of potential and that was the way to get it out of him.

I really do think a lot of other players would have crumbled under that sort of pressure. TP was definitely tough minded.

 

[SpursBills]

Mitch is doing the right thing. He is making sure Castle establishes himself as a point guard first. If he played Harper at the 1 over Castle that would undermine Castles's development. Harper I believe is a natural 1, but he is getting the treatment all Spurs players get. "Show me you can play defense and I'll give you minutes". I am sure year 2 Harper will get to run the Team more. Again, I think this is more about not stunting Castles growth, then denying Harper his opportunities.

Yes, this exactly. Spurs like to stress-test a bunch of their new prospects and put them in situations they're not used to to try and develop skills they don't have

Wemby - came in bigger than everyone else, maybe could have put him in the post, but instead made him chuck a bunch of 3s in year 2
Castle - came in with a wing-ish skillset from college and played PG in HS, was getting forcefed PG reps to develop his PG vision and handle
Harper - came in with natural PG skills and bad college defense, now working primarily as an off-ball scorer and POA defender
Vassell - came in as a 3 and D wing prospect, given free reign to chuck a bunch of bad shots and even playmake a little in the early Wemby years
Sochan - came in as a versatile undersized big, got put at point forward/backup center/wing to try and develop other parts of his game

Most of the time it looks like stress-testing prospects helps to unlock other parts of their game to make them more complete players. Some guys end up dying on the vine with this approach. Would not surprise me if next year Harper still comes off the bench but he's taking a bunch of off the dribble jumpers (will inevitably look like chucking in some games) early to midway through the season because that's the next major weakness that he has that can unlock his game

 

[John B]

Yup the planets aligned when the Spurs got Timmy, Manu, Pop and TP together. It was a perfect storm of skills, unselfishness, and discipline. Of course it started with Timmy allowing to be coached and the rest followed. My all time favorite athlete is Manu, but it could be TP anytime. TP is an Alpha, period. He grew up knowing that he would be one, believing he’s the best on the court every time. The blurry speed of a one-man transition, fearless going through trees despite his size, the spin move, floaters. He’s wiping the floor every time he goes up. He’s as feisty as any one could be. I’m sure anywhere else he would’ve been a jerk, an asshole like the kinds of MJ, Kobe because that’s how Alphas are. In San Antonio, Pop curved that ego, selfishness into team players. While Phil Jackson massages everyone’s ego, Pop demanded they leave their egos outside. And that’s what Spurs culture allowed longevity, no drama. Not everyone is built to be in that system, surely not superstars like KD, Melo, LeBron imo. I’m glad Wemby seems to be the same way, trusting the system, and the rest follows. It helps that players like Keldon, Barnes are taking a step back. Devin seems to have settled on his role, everyone seems to be, and they’re winning. It helped that the Big 3 can show the championship banners as a result. It helped that Timmy, TP, Manu once all left their egos outside.

 

[Spursgenius]

It's on another scale but Mitch keeps Dylan on much shorter leash then Castle. I am all for it if it's going to make him better.

Stitch is clueless, learning on job

 

[spurraider21]

never forget