A coach's influence beyond basketball

Interesting article in SI last week about the culture of the Spurs organization and what differentiates it from other franchises in the league. The Spurs have gone "a sustained period with unchanged core principles and principals."

Coach Gregg Popovich has a lot to do with the unique culture of the Spurs. Pops' influence extends way beyond basketball, as described by Roger Mason (pictured here with Coach Popovich), who signed with SA in July after stints with CHI, TOR, and WAS:

"The most impressive thing that I've seen Pop do is, before the election, he had us watch a video on the civil rights movement. For me, you know he has the X's and O's and that he's a great coach, but stuff like that, you don't see that.

It was Dr. King. It was a bunch of current events on the struggles that a lot of African-Americans went through in the civil rights movement. It completely threw me off. But when I went home and reflected on it, I was like, Man, he's a special guy.''

Parker: My biggest role will be to get everybody involved

Note out of San Antonio about Spurs PG Tony Parker taking on more of a leadership role this season:

“I’m trying to establish myself as a leader, and be more vocal,” Parker said. “I want to take more responsibility. My biggest role this year will be to get everybody involved.”

That part of Parker’s game has taken a while to come out of its shell. When he arrived as a 19-year-old rookie in 2001, he experienced considerable and understandable trouble imposing himself on a team overflowing with veterans.

Somehow, he sensed, a 37-year-old NBA graybeard like Terry Porter wasn’t going to be taking basketball advice from a teenager fresh from Paris. At the time, Parker felt it better to be seen, but not heard.

“When you have David Robinson and Steve Kerr and all those guys, you just watch and you listen,” Parker said. “Now, this is my eighth year, (and) we’ve got a lot of young guys. It’s my job to help them.”

Popovich saw signs of that leadership emerging in Parker last season. Finally comfortable in his own NBA sneakers, Parker had no qualms about bossing around even a future Hall of Famer like Tim Duncan.

“He’s being really demanding of his teammates, and not worrying about hurting somebody’s feelings,” Popovich said. “He’s not here to win king of the Fun-a-rama. He’s here to make sure everybody does their job.”

A proven system

In its NBA preview, the NY Times contends that "age and health are again the primary concerns for the Spurs, who are trying to keep up their streak of championship parades every other June (following 2003, 2005 and 2007)."

As the Times article points out, for the Spurs, "seven integral players are in their 30s: Tim Duncan (32), Manu Ginóbili (31), Bruce Bowen (37), Michael Finley (35), Kurt Thomas (36), Fabricio Oberto (33) and Jacque Vaughn (33)."

But Duncan says two factors help separate the Spurs from other teams in the West:

"We have a proven system. We have a proven bunch of guys."