For Popovich, Tang Tian still has respect.

Being able to coach a team for more than 20 years, and always leading the team to be a strong player, constantly learning, improving, and changing, is really not something that ordinary people can do.

Everyone has a different evaluation of coaches, and in Tang Tian's eyes, the old man is one of the greatest coaches.

"Okay, when?"

"How's tomorrow? I'm waiting for you in San Antonio, and I'll pay for the ticket. Popovich said with a smile.

"Okay."

The two of them chatted for a while, set the time and place, and settled the matter.

The next day, Tang Tian asked Thibodeau to lead the team to do daily training, and then put on a suit and went directly to Popovich's house.

San Antonio and Houston are in the same state of Texas, and the plane is only about 1 hour away.

Don got out of the car and took another taxi, and half an hour later he appeared at Popovich's doorstep.

The old man has been working in the league for more than twenty years, and although he is not as rich as the players, he also lives in a suburban estate.

When Tang Tian arrived at the door, he was greeted by Popovich's daughter Jill, a thirty-four-four-five-year-old woman who knew that she was biological by looking at her face.

"Welcome, Don, my dad is in the cellar, I'll be here in a minute." After Jill finished speaking, he led Tang Tian to the living room.

Although it is said that the manor, the whole structure is still very retro, there is a chimney in the living room, there is firewood burning in the chimney, and there is a big Akita dog sitting next to the firewood, and when he saw Tang Tian, his eyes kept looking at him, until Jill scolded a few times before lowering his head and continuing to lie there.

Akita dog Tang Tian knows, in his previous life, he saw a movie called "Loyal Dog Hachiko", which tells the story of an American professor and an Akita dog, Akita dog will wait for his owner at the train station every day, one day the professor suddenly died of a heart attack, but the Akita dog didn't know, it has been waiting at the entrance of the train station, starving and freezing, waiting for nine years, and finally waiting until he died.

When I first watched the movie, he was in his thirties and cried.

The movie is based on true events, which also shows that the loyalty of the Akita is well-known even among dogs.

Popovich has this kind of dog, which is a good match for him.

"Don."

Just as he was thinking about it, Popovich's laughter rang out from the Holy Queen.

The old man was wearing a blue and white casual shirt, holding two bottles of red wine in his hand, and standing behind him with a smile.

Seeing Tang Tian's dress, Popovich laughed and said, "Why are you dressed so formally, this is not a date, I am not a beautiful girl." ”

Tang Tian was stunned for a moment, but he probably guessed the old man's character, and said with a smile: "This is respect." ”

"Respect?" Popovich paused, then nodded, "Yes, respect, I honestly like you." ”

He sat down on the couch, took out two wine glasses from under the table, wiped them with a white cloth, then opened one of the bottles and began to pour it in.

"This is a 1990 vintage red wine from Château Igan in France, try it."

In 1990, it was also a world-famous winery of Igan.

These two prefixes alone show that this wine is extremely precious, and Popovich is really gracious.

Tang Tian also drank red wine in his previous life, picked up the wine glass and shook the wine glass gently, smelled it with his nose, a faint fragrance, and then took a small sip.

On the palate it is sour with a hint of sweetness and a strong fruity aroma.

Sure enough, it's a good wine.

Popovich also picked up the wine glass at this time, but it was different from Tang Tian's way of drinking, after the old man shook it, he directly drank half a glass in one gulp, and then poured half a glass into it, making Tang Tian stunned.

This bottle is less than tens of thousands of dollars, and Popovich's way of drinking it is really a bit extravagant.

And the older the red wine, the more stamina it has, and the old man is not afraid of getting drunk?

Oh yes, forget that Popovich is a big drunkard.

Tang Tian picked up the wine glass and took another sip.

"Yes, what you are dressed reminds me of one thing, I also have a niece, she is about the same age as you, and she is very beautiful, do you want to introduce me to you?"

"Ahem...... cough cough" Tang Tian just took a sip of wine down his throat, and coldly said this, choking on a cough.

"I have a girlfriend." He went on to say that Popovich doesn't follow entertainment news and probably doesn't know anything about him and Swift.

"That's a pity, if you were my niece-in-law, we would have a great drink." Popovich said with a little regret.

Tang Tian smiled bitterly for a while, hearing that Popovich was more interested in drinking than in basketball, and even his niece was sold, which was really worthy of the name.

At this time, Jill came up with some fruit bowls, which contained some dried fruits and snacks.

Popovich picked up his glass and drank half a glass, and then said: "Who do you think is a real coach in this league now?" ”

Real coaches?

Tang Tian glanced at Popovich, at this time, it is definitely not appropriate to say that you are or I am.

But it's also interesting to talk about this with the old man.

He thought about it, Auerbach had passed away, and Pat Riley had also switched careers as general manager last season, so the rest.

"Phil Jackson, he's got nine championship rings on his hand." The first reaction in Tang Tian's mind was him.

"Phil is half of it, that guy is very good at dealing with star relationships, but half of it depends on luck, if it weren't for Jordan, Kobe, and Shaq, he wouldn't have been able to get a ring." Popovich doesn't seem to be too impressed with his contemporary, Jackson.

Jackson can't even look down on it?

"Larry Brown? He is an epoch-making coach and a living fossil of the league. Tang Tian continued.

"Larry is a respectable coach, but his coaching style is too old-school to keep up with the times." Popovich smiled and shook his head, then poured half a glass into his glass.

"Jerry Sloan, known for his pick-and-roll plays." Tang Tian continued.

Popovich laughed straight away, then shook his head.

"Jerry, does he have a championship ring?"

"Don Nelson?"

"He has absolutely no idea what defense is."

"Rick Carlisle? I played him in the first round and I could feel his excellent tactical level. Tang Tian continued.

"Yes, Rick's tactics are good, but he's terrible in everything but tactics."

"Rick Adelman, Mike D'Anthony, George Carr, or Dow Rivers?" Tang Tian really didn't know which old man was better, so he directly moved out all the remaining well-known coaches.

"Rick and Mike only know how to play offense, and they don't have any sense of defense at all, George is even more so, the defense is not good, and the offense is not even as good as Rick and Mike, as for Brother Dao, I don't know what level he was before last year."

"Then I don't know who else." Tang Tian said and shook his head.

"I think it......" Popovich put down his wine glass at this time and looked at Tang Tian.

Tang Tian unconsciously grasped the strength of the wine glass at this time, and then turned his head to look at the sky outside the window.

This rhythm, how does it feel a little wrong!