Popovich: ‘[Winning] is Boring as Hell’

Doing the same thing over and over can get boring. When that thing is winning, though, usually that’s not a problem. But for Coach Pop, winning just isn’t doing it for him. Via San Antonio News-Express (spotted at CBSSports): “For Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, the first 52 games of the season have played like his own personal Groundhog Day. Every night, he dispatches the same starting lineup, uses mostly the same rotation, calls mostly the same plays, usually watches another Spurs’ victory, then goes home and eats dinner. Ho hum. ‘It’s like I don’t have a job anymore,’ Popovich said. Popovich, it seems, has discovered a downside to a 44-8 record. ‘It’s boring as hell,’ he said. The upside? Popovich says the Spurs’ apparent shift to autopilot has freed up more time for his real passions. ‘Wine and reading,’ Popovich said. And if you believe any of that, Popovich has a bridge in wine country to sell you. Players say Popovich has been just as engaged this season as last, when he started 25 different lineups and the Spurs had to struggle just to make the playoffs as a seventh seed. As the Spurs’ record has risen, so have the stakes, so have the expectations, and so has Popovich’s standard ‘He won’t let us settle,’ said guard George Hill, whose team resumes its rodeo trip tonight at Philadelphia. ‘He wants us to be the best team we can.'”