With 5 championships each and 2500+ combined regular-season wins, Pat Riley and Gregg Popovich’s legacy is sealed in the NBA history books. Hall of Famer Charles Barkley believes there is a key reason why the coaches succeed and built a dynasty. In fact, the player turned broadcaster had ranted about the problem persisting with the current NBA coaches last year.
His recent rant was during the NCAA March Madness Final Four broadcast. “Your job as a coach is to get the best out of your players. And these guys think criticism is bad coaching,” Chuck bluntly stated. “That’s part of being a coach. If you don’t criticize, like one of the reasons Gregg Popovich and Pat Riley, they own the Mount Rushmore.
“You asked any of the Spurs, like he (Coach Pop) yelled at Tim Duncan, he yelled at David Robinson, Parker, and Ginobili. And you know the reason you have to do that? Because if you don’t yell at your stars, you can’t yell at the mediocre players. And that’s the power of coaching. It’s in line with his rant about poor coaching in the league. ”
Charles Barkley’s assessment of the former Spurs head coach is absolutely spot on. The 77-year-old has the most wins of any coach in NBA history after spending nearly three decades as head coach before stepping away due to a terrifying health scare that left him ‘barely responding.’ Since then, Coach Pop has become president of basketball operations. During his coaching tenure, Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker received no special treatment as they laid the foundation of a dynasty.
“If you don’t yell at your stars, you can’t yell at your mediocre players.”
Chuck gave his take on what makes a great coach
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When Parker came into the league, he was arguably the greatest French prospect in the NBA. To hone the skill, Gregg Popovich was tough from the first practice. In fact, the six-time All-Star, in his book Beyond All of My Dreams, admitted that his rookie season nearly broke him.
“From my first NBA practices, Gregg Popovich was really hard on me. ‘Get your head out of your a–.’He cursed a lot and said other crazy things. It wasn’t easy to handle. I sometimes had tears in my eyes in the shower after practice. I told myself, ‘I’ll never be able to satisfy this coach. He’ll never be happy.’ All he did was push me. Push me to test my limits. But there were never limits,” Parker said.
Even Coach Pop acknowledged that he was hard on Parker. In 2019, when the Spurs honored Tony Parker with a jersey retirement ceremony, the former head coach joked about their relationship dynamics. “Tony, I want to apologize for all the physical and mental abuse I gave you over the years,” Popovich said to the roar of laughter. “Thank you. I’ve been wanting to say that for a long time.”
Charles Barkley called NBA coaches cowards
The main reason why Sir Charles hails the former coaches is because of their hard-nosed approach. According to the 76ers legend, this is lacking in today’s NBA, as the head coaches have less power than before. During an appearance on the Dan Patrick Show last year expressed his disappointment with how players currently hold the power over coaches.
“I think the biggest thing you need to be a great player is have a good coaching staff,” Charles Barkley said. “I think more players get ruined by bad coaching staffs because the coaches are cowards. They’re scared to coach. But most of these coaches today, they are cowards. Because the players make so much money, they don’t have them under control. The players run the team. And the coach needs to realize that the player is going to get him fired.”
