San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich made his return to the stands against the Orlando Magic after sitting out for the previous two preseason games.
The man at the helm backed the opinions of his assistant, Becky Hammon, who told reporters forward LaMarcus Aldridge had emerged as more of a leader of the team.
“He leads more like Timmy (Duncan) does, just by example,” Popovich said, according to Tom Orsborn of the San Antonio Express-News. “He works hard in practice. He’s communicating with players really well. He’s communicating with coaches and taking pride in being here and in being a leader in the group. He’s not a towel waver or anything like that. He does it by example. He’s done a good job.”
Popovich let his assistants take turns coaching the team on the sidelines, making his return during a 103-98 loss to the Magic.
“Nobody else wanted to do it,” Popovich joked. “They said, ‘We already did it, so you got to do it.’ So I have to get up twice a quarter for timeouts and then sit back down.”
The longest-tenured coach gave Kawhi Leonard a rest while playing the rest of his starters in limited minutes, playing most of his reserves and still managing to keep the Magic to 44 percent from the field and 26 percent from deep.
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