“I just think Pop is a great testimony to always knowing what the trends are,” said Avery Johnson, Popovich’s point guard on the Spurs’ first championship team, in 1999, who came to San Antonio at the coach’s behest from Golden State. “Early on, it was trending towards discipline, defense, accountability,” Johnson added. “It wasn’t as much give and take. It’s basically, here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to do it and do it well. It starts with practice habits, defense. And it starts with coaching the star players harder than they want to be coached. Then it trended more towards being a little bit more creative offensively; I’m going to be a little bit more flexible with rules, being more flexible in terms of culture, the way I communicate. Maybe the way I communicate in 1999 is not going to be exactly how I communicate in 2001 and 2011 and 2020. Just being able to evolve but still have the same core values.”