NBA Finals pit Kerr, the regular vs. Udoka the rookie, under shadow of mentor Popovich

Gregg Popovich’s benevolent shadow looms over the NBA Finals, as two of his former players and disciples clash: the experienced Steve Kerr, seeking a fourth title with Golden State, and the rookie Ime Udoka for his first with Boston.

On the eve of game 3, the two teams are tied at one win each. The first one was unexpectedly won by the Celtics, who erased a 15-point deficit to crush everything in the fourth quarter (120-108), but the Warriors answered in style with a comprehensive (107-88) victory at the Chase Center in San Francisco.

“Experience matters, it really helps you understand the ups and downs of a playoff series. It’s really important to turn the page, either way,” Warriors coach Kerr said between the two games.

An experience that translates into a sixth final in eight years for the Golden State coach, after having won five as a player. Three in the wake of Michael Jordan and under the orders of Phil Jackson with the Chicago Bulls (1996, 1997, 1998), two others under Popovich (1999, 2003) with San Antonio Spurs.

‘Pop’ on Kerr

“There are certain guys that you know have an intuitive feel for the game. They’re also natural leaders and good people. They communicate well, have a great work ethic and superior intelligence. He had all of that. It was pretty easy to see,” “Pop” reacted when Kerr was named the Warriors’ head coach in 2014.

Since then, the two have continued to cross paths from bench to bench and have also sat on the same one, as Kerr served as Popovich’s assistant during the 2019 World Cup in China (quarterfinal elimination by France) and for last year’s victorious Olympic campaign in Toyko.

“With ‘Pop’, I understood a lot about the game and the basketball culture. A lot of what we do at Golden State comes from what I learned from him,” the 56-year-old Warriors coach readily admits.

The team he built, around the trio Stephen Curry/Klay Thompson/Draymond Green, then reinforced by Kevin Durant, with three titles to the key (2015, 2017, 2018), applies more or less the same precepts as that of the Spurs of his glorious elder (73 years old), champions five times (1999, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2014), relying in particular on a big defense and a very successful collective game.

‘Popovich is the basketball coach I aspire to be’

In view of his first season at the head of the Boston Celtics, Ime Udoka, who was a player (2007-2009, 2010-2011) then assistant (2012-2019, champion in 2014) of Popovich, advocates the same philosophy. “Spending seven years at his side on the bench helped lay the foundation for the basketball coach I aspire to be,” the Celtics coach said, at the beginning of the season as he looks to become the 10th coach to be champion in his rookie year, like ... Kerr in 2015.

The 44-year-old Nigerian-born coach, who was also an assistant in Philadelphia and Brooklyn before being given his chance by Boston, was able to create an electroshock mid-season with his players, when the green machine was running on empty. His team was out of the running for the play-offs, in 11th place with a negative balance sheet, but made a spectacular comeback to finish 2nd in the East, before eliminating Kevin Durant’s Nets, Giannis Antetokounmpo’s defending champion Bucks and Jimmy Butler’s Miami Heat.

“He exudes such confidence and swagger that people just gravitate toward him,” Popovich said of him in 2015. “He’s like a teacher, in a good way, because he’s comfortable with himself, he knows his stuff, and that’s something the players feel.”