It showed last season when the No. 1 seed fell in the first round to an upset loss with the Memphis Grizzlies, who were even without Rudy Gay.
Head Coach Gregg Popovich shut the critics up this season, leading San Antonio to yet another No. 1 seed with 50 games in the lockout NBA season. With that, he won this year's Coach of the Year award.
Popovich won the award easily over Bulls' Tom Thibodeau and Pacers' Frank Vogel. This season, Popovich led San Antonio to the No. 1 seed differently, making it through the bench and younger players more instead of on Duncan and company.
San Antonio struggled at the start at 12-9, with Oklahoma City as the favorites. However, San Antonio would soon creep up the standings and managed to get the top seed once again.
"If you can draft David Robinson and follow that up with Tim Duncan, that's a couple of decades of very, very possible success unless you just screw it up," Popovich said. "So it's hard to take credit when circumstances have gone your way so consistently."
Congrats to Popovich, he's well-deserving even though I had my vote in for Vogel.
Here are the results for the award:
