Good a coach as Gregg Popovich was, and he was one of the best, he’s an even better American.
Time and again, Popovich used his platform to demand better of his country and fellow citizens. Gun control. Voting. The fraudsters who once before and are now again shredding the Constitution and the rules of law, caring only about themselves and not the people they were elected to serve.
Popovich knew he was probably rubbing some San Antonio Spurs fans the wrong way by weighing in when he thought it necessary. Probably gave the front office heartburn, too. But he did it, anyway, recognizing that democracy is a verb, something too many in this country don’t seem to get.
It’s easy to thump your chest and claim to be patriotic, and much harder to actually do the work required for a free and just society. A graduate of the Air Force Academy, Popovich’s service took him to what was then the Soviet Union. He saw firsthand what happens to a country when it’s ruled by craven men who care more about enriching themselves than the people they lead, how quickly freedom can be hollowed out when citizens don’t have a right to self-determination, and he wanted no part of that.
For Popovich, love of country meant holding it to account. Challenging America to live up to the freedoms and ideals promised to us, and demanding answers and action when we fall short.
“Being a patriot is somebody that respects their country and understands that the best thing about our country is that we have the ability to fix things that have not come to fruition for a lot of people so far,” Popovich said in 2019, when he defended Colin Kaepernick’s protests against police brutality of Black and Brown people.
“All the promises in the beginning when the country was established is fantastic, but those goals have not been reached yet for a lot of people,” Popovich said. “… Being a critic of those inequalities does not make you a non-patriot. It’s what makes America great, that you can say those things and attack those things to make them better. That’s what a lot of other countries don’t have. You lose your freedom when you do that.”
Popovich is notoriously gruff, and holding court with the media held about as much appeal for him as a root canal. But with his background — he grew up in East Chicago, Indiana, a Rust Belt town still reeling from the shuttering of steel mills and the job losses that followed — and status as a five-time NBA champion coach, he knew he had a chance to reach people who might tune out his plain, hard truths if they heard them from someone else.
Popovich did more than just talk, though. When he hired Becky Hammon in 2014, she became the first full-time female assistant coach in any of the major men’s sports.
Though Popovich had long been a proponent of equality, he didn’t hire Hammon for show. Popovich had gotten to know Hammon when she was playing with the San Antonio Stars, and believed she was the best person for the opening he had on his staff. (She’s more than proven him right, winning two WNBA titles with the Las Vegas Aces.)
‘I don’t even look at it as, well, she’s the first female this and that and the other,” Popovich said in 2015. “She’s a coach, and she’s good at it.”
But representation matters, and Pop’s hiring of Hammon paved the way for other women to get jobs on NBA, NFL, NHL and MLB staffs.
‘A person had to come along that didn’t care about gender. They care about how you do your job,’ Hammon once said of Popovich.
Popovich was the ultimate coach. Whether it was his players or his country, he was always pushing for more, knowing there was room for improvement and refusing to settle for less.
Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.