26 Times Gregg Popovich's Greatness Went Beyond Basketball

21. Coach Pop Gives Jock Landale Literal Homework

Even though you get free team dinners and wine with Popovich, that doesn't mean you're free from putting in work. And I don't just mean physical work.

"One of the first sessions we had with the team, I had to present a two-minute speech about Joe Biden's $2 trillion bill that was passed in America for infrastructure and such," said Jock Landale in an interview. "I had to talk to the group about it and educate them on what was going on."

Landale quickly learned what everyone who's played under Coach Pop learned quickly: it's about more than just the game.

"He's just trying to broaden our knowledge on things greater than basketball. That's kind of cool to see from a guy of his stature."

22. Pop Admits Duncan's Dominance Made Him Look Good

While the special dynamic between Popovich and Tim Duncan is what ultimately led to them maximizing the success of the franchise, there's no question Coach Pop became the luckiest guy ever when Duncan came aboard. He would be the first to tell you that he owes just about all of his success to Tim's dominance, and he's said so already.

Even though Pop has since proven he's still the best of the best after Tim (61 wins the year after he retired, now achieving the all-time wins record), he's admitted that having an all-time great made his job pretty easy.

“Timmy (Duncan) got a little bit boring after a while,” Popovich said recently. “You throw him the ball and he scores, come on. There is not a lot of coaching there.”