One of the greatest coaches and overall team-builders in NBA history is going to draft one of the best prospects in modern NBA history No. 1 Thursday tonight. The combination of Gregg Popovich and Victor Wembanyama has predictably made us salivate and wonder what it might be like to see someone with a skill set we can’t quite fathom in the hands of someone who built a modern dynasty that yielded five championships and 22 straight trips to the playoffs.
Of course, the part we’ll talk less about is the fact that Popovich was willing to lose for a few seasons to put himself in a position to get Wembanyama. While the NBA lottery system theoretically disincentivizes tanking better than the NFL format of going strictly by record, the Spurs, following the dispensing of their incredible core, allowed themselves to be better suited to accumulate talent instead of scraping for a low-end playoff spot.
As a football obsessive, it brings one question to mind: What might have happened if the NFL’s version of Popovich, Bill Belichick, had made the same decision following the breakup of his own dynasty?
