Web Posted: 10/04/2008 11:23 CDT
Explanations grow long: Grizzly Pop
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/Explanations_grow_long_Grizzly_Pop.html
The trip required a floatplane, then a helicopter, until they were north of Vancouver in pristine wilderness. About a hundred humans are allowed in this area over a full summer, and, a month ago, Gregg Popovich was one of them.
He went with buddies, as well as a few guides, and it was a grand fishing adventure. Until someone else joined him. Waist deep in a stream, helpless because of the water and the weight of his gear, Popovich looked to the side and there, maybe 20 feet away, was a Grizzly.
He never minded Memphis Grizzlies. He admits this Canadian one scared him.
If the Grizzly could talk, he would have told Popovich to get over himself. The Grizzly chose to ignore him and fish, and that’s one explanation why Popovich has kept his beard. He might see it as lucky.
There are other explanations. Before these are outlined, full disclosure is required. I also grew a beard this summer, and mine, too, came in mostly white. My family is as proud as Popovich’s surely is.
Then again, I own scissors. I don’t look like I walked out of the Bible.
I also don’t coach a basketball team, or appear in front of cameras on media day. I wasn’t interviewed on ESPN2 during the Silver Stars game, prompting an announcer’s gag.
The reference was to Howard Hughes, leading to a disturbing question. Has anyone checked Popovich’s fingernails?
Popovich says he has heard all the jokes, and he’s made a few jokes himself. On media day he announced he would do whatever Tim Duncan wanted him to do regarding this matter.
“If he tells me he wants it gone, it’s gone,” Popovich said. “If he wants me to leave it, I’ll leave it. If he wants me to trim it, I’ll trim it.”
That leads to another explanation why the beard still existed as of Saturday. Duncan likes it.
But Duncan probably sees this beard as all of the Spurs do. Popovich has grown summer beards before, and they’ve always gone down the drain before the start of training camp. Yet the Spurs show up the next day in the gym, expecting change, and there is the beard, seemingly another inch longer.
Now they joke and wonder. Will he leave the Spurs for a ZZ Top tour?
Beards have been worn before in the NBA. Walt Frazier starred with one, and Baron Davis created a catchphrase in Oakland the last few years. “Fear the beard.”
Bill Walton once won with a scraggly version, and Phil Jackson grew his own soul patch. In various times, albeit in far shorter lengths, Robert Horry, Tony Parker, Michael Finley and other Spurs have had facial hair.
But Popovich’s should come with an ark. His is long and getting longer. By November he might be able to signal defensive changes with it.
That brings up another explanation. Maybe Popovich has reached a point where he doesn’t care.
Four titles have given him security, and he’s always been an independent thinker. If David Stern gives him any grief, maybe he braids the beard just for fun.
Another explanation fits Popovich better. Somewhere, underneath the hair, he is probably amused by the attention.
Fewer people are talking about Manu Ginobili’s ankle than they are Popovich’s chin, and the same coach who doesn’t waste time on trivialities probably can’t believe a beard could have this effect.
So when one reader e-mailed this week and said she will not watch the Spurs this season because “Pop has crossed the line with his mid-life crisis look?” Knowing Popovich, he is amazed he can get a city talking merely by not shaving.
But here’s the problem with that explanation — he usually doesn’t like unnecessary attention. He doesn’t seek celebrity, and he doesn’t care if he’s noticed. Furthermore, he certainly doesn’t want to be known for something as superficial as hair.
That leads to the final explanation. Popovich grew the beard in the summer, waddled away from the Grizzly, came back to start work, didn’t think much about it.
And will shave before the season starts.
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