SAN JUAN (William Rosario's Somewhere in the Americas) - Two weeks ago, USA Basketball announced that Gregg Popovich will take over as coach of the Senior Men’s National Team in 2017, after the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. It was a universally praised move by the national federation, and deservedly so, Popovich is the perfect choice.

Popovich will be the second coach in the Jerry Colangelo-era. The first, Mike Krzyzewski, is currently in the tail end of one of the, if not the most impressive run in international basketball history. Coach K has a 52-1 record in official FIBA competitions, with two FIBA Basketball World Cup gold medals, two Olympic gold medals, and a 2007 FIBA Americas Championship gold medal. He will be looking to add a third one next year in the Rio de Janeiro Olympic games.

It had come a point where talent stopped being enough for USA to easily win international basketball competitions. The 2002-2006 window where the country finished 6th in the 2002 World Cup, 3rd in the 2004 Olympic Games and 3rd in the 2006 World Cup made it clear that apart from having the best basketball players in the world, they needed to up their game in restructuring the national team program for the new international basketball landscape where teams were no longer scared of their NBA superstars.

And they did. Colangelo’s and Krzyzewski’s USA Basketball team was refocused to prioritize national pride, total commitment to the cause and respect towards their opponents. The national team began to look less like an NBA all-star team and more like a 12-man roster built to compete in FIBA competitions. They got it. Talent was not enough. A+ planning had to be instituted.

This is why Popovich is undisputedly perfect. His last championship was won with an Argentinean, an Australian, a Brazilian, an Italian and two French players on the roster. The year after he won it in 2014, he hired Ettore Messina as his assistant coach. He’s international to the bone.

More importantly, he is the best choice for the new competition system. Maybe more suited than even Krzyzewski would have been. In this new format that will be regular-season-like, with 12 qualification games over the span of two years, along with all the different coordination and planning that will be needed to be effective, you want a coach that understand long-term. Nobody in the world understands it like Popovich, the coach that manages minutes and player rotation to perfection during the 82-game marathon that is the NBA season. You also need a coach with a strong identity.

One of the nonsensical assumptions I read over and over when the appointment was announced was that it signaled that Popovich would retire as Spurs coach after the 2016 season. He can if he wants, but doesn’t have to. He has that strong sense of identity as a coach. We all know what a Popovich-coached team plays like. His assistants can do the job in the windows where NBA season is in full effect and then he’ll be there for the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup (now with 12 qualifying games in their belt as preparation...as opposed to the zero currently participate in. Even more prep for USA is a scary thought).

But it should extend past it being Popovich. The fact that they made the right and obvious pick is the cherry on top. The real move, at least to me, was to announce a year and a half before the gig is even open. That is rare and points to USA Basketball thinking ahead of the pack, gearing up for what is to come with the competition system.

This is what I hope national federations in the Americas pay attention to. I hope the splashy “NBA legendary coach takes over USA Basketball coaching duties” headline does not distract them to what’s at the core of this decision. Better planning and structure is key!

Even if you don’t have the Lebrons or Stephen Currys in your talent pool, there is no excuse for lack of structure. There are national teams that will compete in official tournaments next year that do not have a coach at the moment and do not seem to be actively looking for one.

Long-term successful federations in the Americas do. Argentina for example, a national team program that has been elite for the last 15 years without exception has this modus operandi. It might have not been said out loud and confirmed, but everybody expects Nicolas Casalanguida, 36-year old national league champion coach with Regatas Corrientes, to be named head coach for 2017. He is the assistant for Sergio Hernandez now and is headed for better and bigger things with the national team.

In the Americas, both the USA and Argentinean basketball federations are trendsetters. I hope this trend is set and the rest of the national federations in the continent put structure and planning at the forefront of their national team programs. That would be a great first step in upping the level of basketball in our region. Nothing wrong with following the World and Olympic champ’s lead, right?

 

William Rosario

FIBA

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