Auburn Hills, Mich. – San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich likened the breakup of the Los Angeles Lakers last offseason to the breakup of the former Soviet Union.
While star center Shaquille O’Neal isn’t back, the Lakers restored some of the old team Tuesday when coach Phil Jackson was rehired.
“It’s great,” Popovich said Wednesday before Game 3 of the NBA Finals. “The city of Los Angeles should obviously be thrilled and excited. He’s a tremendous coach, so the players should be excited.
“He obviously wants to do this, so he thinks it’s going to work out for him and I hope he’s correct.”
Detroit Pistons coach Larry Brown said he was happy to see Jackson back in the league. Jackson’s last game coaching was during last season’s Finals, when Brown’s Pistons defeated the Lakers in five games.
“He’s a great coach,” Brown said before Game 3. “I don’t know if you can make a better choice than a guy who has won nine championships and done a lot for our game.”
NBA going to Europe
If the contracts are signed, as expected, San Antonio, Cleveland, Philadelphia and Phoenix will be going to Europe for competition against the top European clubs and training camp in October 2006 for NBA Europe Live. Four other NBA teams will go in 2007.
“This is the NBA’s most ambitious European basketball competition,” NBA commissioner David Stern said. “NBA Europe will exemplify how sports leagues around the world can work together for the long-term growth of the sport.”
Although Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has said he doesn’t want his team going, Popovich is excited about the idea.
“Some teams didn’t want to go to play in the preseason or have an overseas kind of trip because they thought it (would) hurt them for the season, and we think it’s the opposite,” Popovich said. “We think it’s a great opportunity for the camaraderie, to be in a different situation, to get to know each other and so on and so on.”
Footnotes
Music legend Stevie Wonder, using a harmonica, was joined by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in a new arrangement of “The Star-Spangled Banner” before Game 3. … Faye Billups, the mother of Pistons guard and Denver native Chauncey Billups, will join Stern, former NBA star Bill Russell, other former stars and current players and mothers of some players at Detroit’s Grant Elementary School to dedicate a reading and learning center. One also was dedicated in San Antonio.
