Snippet: Gregg Popovich Loves Dinner ☇

Baxter Holmes for ESPN (via Om Malik):

In the NBA, the Gregg Popovich meal is the dining room where it happens — a roving retreat through which the Spurs have forged a team culture that’s the envy of the league. But for those in the league who’ve not secured the invite, Pop’s legendary dinners remain shrouded in mystery and no small amount of fascination.

And so it was that over the past 18 months we talked to dozens of NBA and college coaches, current and former NBA players, team executives, chefs and sommeliers, all to answer a question: Why does Popovich — the NBA’s all-time winningest coach and architect of a two-decades-long basketball dynasty — care so damn much about dinner?

I came across this article yesterday and even if you have no interest in the NBA, it’s a rather enjoyable read about leadership, friendship, treating people well, and has absolutely nothing to do with technology. As we’re getting deeper in the NBA Playoffs, it’s easy to take the success the Spurs have had for granted—they have been consistently good for so long. It’s even crazier if you look at all of the successful people that have come out of that organization that work elsewhere in the NBA, too.