SAN FRANCISCO — The shoes were about five sizes too big.
Gregg Popovich didn’t care.
“He wore them to the first game we played them,” Draymond Green said Friday after the longtime San Antonio Spurs coach announced his retirement.
Asked about Popovich following the Warriors’ Game 6 loss to the Rockets, the Golden State star was so eager to pay his respects that he cut off the reporter’s question and got emotional while discussing their relationship. It all dates back to their time together on Team USA.
Before Steve Kerr and Stephen Curry won gold in Paris, Green earned a medal of his own with Popovich in Tokyo in 2020 (and another, in Rio de Janeiro, in 2016). The medal was especially meaningful to Popovich, a graduate of the Naval Academy, and Green dished out a team-high five assists in the gold medal game against France.
“I gave him my shoes from the gold medal game,” said Green, who wears a size 15½ and estimated Popovich was about a 10. “Every hug since then has meant so much to me. Just to go over to the sideline and hug him.”
Health issues kept Popovich, 76, from the sidelines this season, and Green said, “it sucked playing against the Spurs this year and look over and not see him there. To know that I’ll never get that opportunity again. I just wish I had one last time to go hug him on the sideline before a game.”
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The Warriors made a choice on defense. Here’s how Houston has made them pay Warriors on verge of epic collapse after Game 6 loss to Rockets Warriors’ Kerr offers touching words on Popovich’s impact on NBA, his life Gregg Popovich, the NBA’s all-time wins leader, retires after 29 seasons as San Antonio Spurs coach How to watch Warriors-Rockets Game 6San Antonio announced that Popovich would move into a front office role as the president of basketball operations, while Mike Johnson, who filled in this season on an interim basis, would take over as head coach. Over 29 seasons, Popovich won five NBA titles and went 1,422-869 (.621), accumulating the most wins by any coach in NBA history.
Both coaches in Friday’s game, Kerr and the Rockets’ Ime Udoka, played for and coached with Popovich and shared their thoughts on his impact before tipoff. But, it turns out, he touched Green, too, despite their history largely as foes on the court.
“You love running on court, seeing him on the sideline,” Green said. “He’s one of the most incredible human beings. You get this, like, wall that everyone sees. You ask a dumb question, he going to crush you. It just appears as if he’s this mean old man. And he is the complete opposite. Like complete opposite. The nicest person you ever want to be around. He cares about people so much. I was lucky enough and honored to have the opportunity to spend a summer with him and play for him.”
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