A former staff of Gregg Popovich in San Antonio, Golden State Warriors interim head coach Mike Brown also remains a good friend of the man they call “Pop”.

These two indeed go a long way, even sharing the spotlight in the 2007 NBA Finals when Brown was still leading the Cleveland Cavaliers from the bench. As we all know, the result of their June encounter almost 10 years ago was very lopsided in favor of Popovich.

This time around, armed with a much better lineup than the Cleveland roster he patrolled to the finals, Mike Brown and the top-seeded Warriors will do battle with Gregg Popovich and the Spurs in the Western Conference Finals.

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While Brown has arguably the better personnel, Popovich is still Popovich and the Spurs are still the Spurs. Given all these, is Mike Brown intimidated by the staggering background of his opponent?

If only it was that easy. But nonetheless, fans are in for a treat as the two top regular season teams duke it out in a matchup that is perhaps the best we’ve seen so far in this postseason.