Stephen A. Smith used a recent ESPN segment to underline why head coaching matters in the NBA, and he leaned on a famous San Antonio Spurs anecdote to make his case.
The ESPN host turned the conversation toward Gregg Popovich and the head coach's deep ties to his mentor, Larry Brown — ties Smith says are too often forgotten when fans debate coaching greatness.
"Greg Popovich was once an assistant," Smith said. "When he won the championship, you know what he did when they had their ring ceremony? They played Allen Iverson and the Philadelphia 76ers. His mentor was Larry Brown. Greg Popovich walked, took the ring, walked over [to Brown]."
The story has become part of NBA folklore. Popovich served as a Spurs assistant under Brown from 1988 to 1992 before climbing the front office and ultimately taking over as head coach. When the Spurs raised their first championship banner, Popovich made a point of crossing the floor to recognise the man who had given him his start.
Smith's framing was clear: an NBA head coach's job is not just X's and O's. It is also stewardship of a coaching tree, a willingness to acknowledge the people who shaped a basketball mind. In an era where assistants vault into head jobs and head coaches are fired in waves, that kind of public gratitude has become rare.
The segment was timed to a wider talkSPORT and ESPN debate around coaching influence in the modern NBA. Veterans like Popovich, Erik Spoelstra and Steve Kerr are increasingly cited as outliers — coaches who have stayed long enough at one franchise to actually mentor the next generation. Most others get cycled out before any tree can take root.
Smith's larger point fits with that backdrop. Coaching, he argued, is not a faceless tactical job. It is a career built on relationships, debts and gestures, and Popovich's ring walk to Larry Brown remains one of the cleanest illustrations basketball has ever produced.
The story also lands with renewed relevance as the 2026 playoffs unfold. Brown, now well into his 80s, is still cited by current NBA staffs as a foundational influence. Popovich's tree alone has produced head coaches across the league, including Brett Brown, Mike Budenholzer, Ime Udoka and Will Hardy.
For Smith, it all loops back to one image: the championship coach walking the hardware across the court to the assistant who taught him. As the analyst put it, that is what coaching is supposed to look like — a debt acknowledged, on the night the work paid off.
It is also why he believes the head coaching seat is undervalued in today's NBA discourse, where front offices and superstar empowerment dominate the headlines.
