A trio of San Antonio Spurs icons found their way into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame this year. A former player, Tony Parker, got inducted, as did longtime assistant coach and current Las Vegas Aces head coach Becky Hammon. Sandwiched in between their speeches was Gregg Popovich, who has been at the helm since 1996 and is the winningest coach in NBA history.
Popovich’s speech was, unsurprisingly, excellent. As he explained, there were two reasons why he made it into the Hall of Fame, with the first being a lengthy section in which he thanked the numerous people who helped him in his life and career up to that point.
“This is unimaginable.”
Coach Pop on his induction into the @Hoophall
: The #23HoopClass Enshrinement is live on NBA TV pic.twitter.com/Jh3yggoww3
— NBA (@NBA) August 13, 2023
Coach Pop on his dream of coaching USA Basketball
: The #23HoopClass Enshrinement is live on NBA TV pic.twitter.com/uDxBwbXBL2
— NBA (@NBA) August 13, 2023
Coach Pop on his family
: The #23HoopClass Enshrinement is live on NBA TV pic.twitter.com/7ZV9JuGGtG
— NBA (@NBA) August 13, 2023
And then, Popovich got to the second reason, which he stressed was going to be much shorter than the first. He simply said the word “duh,” then walked over to the quartet of ex-Spurs players — David Robinson, Parker, Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili — who were on stage during his speech. Well, everyone in the building took this to mean the speech was over, to the point that the evening’s host, Ahmad Rashad, came out as music began to play.
The catch: Pop was decidedly not done, so he had some fun with all of this.
“I’ve been waiting for this a long time… I’m not done!” #23HoopClass | @HEB pic.twitter.com/lCuPYZ5xFu
— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) August 13, 2023
Popovich used his remaining time to discuss the importance of relationships, particularly with these four icons. But in a night that is inherently about great moments, this was certainly one of the most entertaining.