Twenty years ago, Popovich had hated it when players went one-on-one over and over.
His catchphrase was, "This is a team game."
A team was like a machine, and every player was a part of that machine. Every part was indispensable. Without one, the machine couldn't run properly.
That had been his coaching philosophy back then.
With that philosophy, he firmly opposed players going one-on-one for more than two possessions in a row.
Taking someone on one-on-one once in a while was fine. But if a player did it for two or more possessions in a row, Popovich would absolutely call him over and give him a thorough tongue-lashing.
With that philosophy guiding the team, no player scored all that much. Their points were spread around evenly.
None of the five starters averaged more than 20 points per game.
Back when fans watched the Spurs play, if any Spurs player scored more than 20 points in a game, they would joke:
"Oh, no, he's in for it. The coach is going to tear him a new one."
So ever since Popovich had started coaching the team, not one player had won the Scoring King title.
But now that he was older, Popovich's coaching philosophy had clearly changed.
When a player had the hot hand, he would even encourage him to keep going one-on-one and piling on the points.
At that moment, Wemby, the team's leader, saw little X stand up to speak. Smiling, he gestured for him to sit down.
"Little X, sit down, sit down. No need to stand up and make a speech. Your performance really has been incredible. Just like the coach said, go out there in the second half and play without holding back. Keep firing away. And don't worry about your stamina. I'll get you