If the Jazz maintains the same rhythm, Will Hardy will be among the favorites for the Coach Of The Year trophy. Like Taylor Jenkins when he arrived in Memphis, Mike Budenholzer at the Hawks or of course Steve Kerr at the Warriors, the former Spurs and Celtics assistant made a remarkable debut as a “head coach”.
At 34, he is the youngest coach in the NBA (if we consider that Joe Mazzulla is only interim) and at the microphone of the Woj Pod, he recounted his departure from Spurs. That was over a year ago when he joined Ime Udoka at the Celtics. Hard to cut the cord with Gregg Popovichhis mentor, who hired him as an intern in 2010…
“It was a difficult discussion with Pop because, you know, I felt indebted to him and to the franchise” he confides. “I’m not afraid to say that I give it my all and try to be a good person. But I’m also not naive that Spurs somehow made me who I am. I find that they keep giving me opening after opening, and they are always so good to me and my family…”.
“If you don’t want me to go, I’m not going”
Then 33 years old, Hardy therefore asked to chat with Gregg Popovich to announce his departure and unsurprisingly, Coach Pop’ did not put any obstacle in his way. On the contrary.
“It was tough…I went to see Pop, and basically I was like, ‘If you don’t want me to go, I’m not going.’ And in typical Pop style, and not for a second, he didn’t make me feel guilty, or like, “How can you do this to me?” Instead, he said, “Let’s talk about the positives of leaving, and the negatives of leaving.” Let’s talk about it “. We sat down, and we had a very long discussion, and in the end, he was brilliant. He basically said to me, “You have to go. »
Eleven years after his arrival as a video intern, Hardy has therefore taken off, heading to the Celtics with Ime Udoka, and a year later, here he is already at the head of his own team, the Jazz, where his playing philosophy is already miracles with a largely renewed group.
