Gregg Popovich, the former military man and current coach of the San Antonio Spurs is usually very stoic but the loss of Tim Duncan made him emotional.

“There’s a big hole in my belly,” Popovich said of Duncan, the future Hall of Famer he coached for his entire 19-year career in San Antonio, who retired last week.  “I think about the culture and his humor. I’ve been used to that for 20 years and now it’s gone. I have to find that in some other way, some other power, some other player. I have to do something. But life goes on for all of us.”

There was a wide belief that Popovich would retire when Duncan did but he says he had to keep making promises to stick around while signing the other players.

“You know what happened? I just got roped in,” Popovich joked. “I had to keep making promises. Manu [Ginobili] was going to sign a few years back and he was like, ‘Are you going to be here?’ Tony [Parker], then Kawhi [Leonard]. Then when we were recruiting LaMarcus [Aldridge], he was like, ‘Are you going to be here?’ it just goes on and on. So I guess I can never stop, I can never retire.

“There’s gotta be some time when we’re trying to sign a free agent and he goes, ‘Pop, are you going to be here?’ and I say, ‘Nope, I’m leaving next week.'”

Popovich is coaching the USA select team, which helps prepare Team USA that’s going to the Olympics.  He’ll take over for Mike Krzyzewski as head coach of Team USA after these Summer Olympics.  He’s excited about it and it means he’ll be around longer than we expected.

“I’m totally surprised and shocked when Jerry Colangelo called me because there’s a whole lot of younger guys that could do the job. So I was thrilled. When you think about being able to be with these guys and represent your country, you say yes. You don’t say, ‘I’ll think about it, I’ll get back to you.’ You say yes.

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source: ESPN