Sometimes Gregg Popovich says 'figure it out' during timeouts, 'What do you want me to do?'
Ahead of Tuesday's 122-101 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday night, San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich shed some insight into his timeout techniques, and they don't involve your traditional "Any Given Sunday" speeches.
"Sometimes in timeouts I'll say, 'I've got nothing for you. What do you want me to do? We just turned it over six times. Everybody's holding the ball. What else do you want me to do here? Figure it out,'" Popovich told ESPN. "And I'll get up and walk away. Because it's true. There's nothing else I can do for them. I can give them some bullshit, and act like I'm a coach or something, but it's on them."
According to Popovich, such an approach "engenders a feeling that they can actually be in charge."
Instilling a feeling of power into your team might be dangerous if you're someone like Mike Woodson. But Popovich has this coaching game down pat, and he seems to understand the necessary balance that comes in a coach-player relationship.
"I think competitive character people don't want to be manipulated constantly to do what one individual wants them to do," Popovich said. "It's a great feeling when players get together and do things as a group. Whatever can be done to empower those people."