Gregg Popovich won his 1,000th game tonight, becoming just the ninth coach—and only active one—to reach the mark. And at the risk of deifying the man, the way his Spurs beat the Pacers tonight was perfectly Popovich-ian. Tied with 15 seconds remaining, the unheralded draft choice that developed into a budding superstar drove to the hoop and unselfishly threw a Ginobili-esque wraparound pass to the wide open bench player in the corner, ignoring the two Hall-of-Famers on the court.
Of course, Popovich may not have lasted as long as he has without those Hall-of-Famers. As just about everybody else has pointed out, Tim Duncan was around for 929 of those wins, and the two are the winningest player-coach combination of all time.
[Fox Sports Southwest]