Fun fact: Gregg Popovich’s first head coaching job was at a small Division III school called Pomona-Pitzer. He accepted the job in 1979 after serving as an assistant coach at Air Force throughout most of the 1970s. The same year he took the job at Pomona-Pitzer, the NBA introduced the three-point field goal, 25 years after it was first tested during a college game between Columbia and Fordham. So with all of that in mind, you would think Pop would be kind of used to the idea of playing with a three-point line by now. He's basically grown as a head coach with the three-point shot in place.
But NOPE. During an interview yesterday, he talked about how much he hates the three-point line. It’s kind of funny because it’s not like three-pointers are a new concept or anything. But if you read between the lines, it’s pretty clear that the Warriors’ success with the three-ball has played a role in his disdain for it.
“I still hate it,” he said. “I’ll never embrace it. I don’t think it’s basketball. I think it’s kind of like a circus sort of thing. Why don’t we have a 5-point shot? A 7-point shot? You know, where does it stop, that sort of thing. But that’s just me, that’s just old school. To a certain degree, you better embrace it or you’re going to lose. And every time we’ve won a championship, the 3-point shot was a big part of it. Because it is so powerful and you’ve gotta be able to do it. And nobody does it better than Golden State, and you know where they’re at. So it’s important. You can’t ignore it.”
You can’t ignore it…but you can hate it.
We don’t necessarily agree with Popovich, but we do respect the fact that he’s not going to embrace something that’s been around for more than 35 years now, no matter how much everyone else loves it. Classic Pop.
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[via Eye on Basketball]
