HOUSTON (SportsRadio 610)- On the night Gregg Popovich debuted as head coach of the San Antonio Spurs in 1996, Rockets head coach Stephen Silas was a 23-year old whose playing career at Brown University had just come to an end. In the quarter century that has passed, Popovich remains in that same job, a fact that Silas marvels of.
“It's an amazing feat to do what he's done in the same place with different groups,” Silas said before losing to Popovich on Tuesday night. “That's why he'll be the winningest coach in NBA history.”
Tuesday was Popovich’s 1,328th NBA win which has him seven wins shy of Don Nelson’s record. Silas was an assistant for Nelson the night broke Lenny Wilkens’ record in 2010 and he’s told the Spurs coach he hopes he’s not on the other bench the night he breaks his old boss’ record.
“I’m looking forward to it because he deserves it,” Silas added.
Like Silas, Popovich also coached under Nelson in Golden State for two seasons at the end of his first stint as Warriors head coach, and the Rockets coach says he sees some of Nelson in Popovich.
“Nellie’s so far outside the box, so it’s hard to put your finger on certain things,” Silas said. “But (Popovich) is always ahead of the curve to me when it comes to whatever it is, and it's in it's in a smart way. Teams right now are shooting a bunch of threes, and his teams aren't shooting as many threes, they’re shooting more mid-range, they’re getting into the paint.
“I think they're the only team that run ‘Floppy’, which is single-double action where the shooter is coming off the baseline. Every single team was running that 10-15 years ago, and now there's one team running it, and he has a few other plays that are hard to guard that went back to then. Nellie was kind of like that to where he would bring out something that was completely different than everybody else was doing.”
Silas is the seventh Rockets head coach to face Popovich during his 26 seasons at the helm of the Spurs, and in an age where coaches are hired and then discarded like child’s coloring book, Popovich’s longevity is special.
“To be in the same place for such a long time, to have the success that he's had with multiple iterations of his team. To have the energy and the wherewithal to go through the ups and downs, year after year after year. He does a great job of surrounding himself with quality people and quality coaches to help him.”