Thanks, coach

With the Patriots winning Super Bowl XLIX in heroic fashion a mere week-and-a-half ago, writers everywhere discussed the greatness of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick as a duo. After all, they have won four Super Bowls together and were NFL runner-ups on two other occasions in 2008 and 2012. Despite what anyone wants to say about questionable tactics in this year’s playoffs or in past years, Brady and Belichick will go down in history as perpetual kings of the AFC East and Super Bowl contenders year in and year out. So what does this have to do with basketball?

This week, former North Carolina coach Dean Smith passed away at the age of 83. According to all who were lucky enough to know him lauded him far more for his “concern for people,” as current Tar Heels coach Roy Williams said, than his success on the basketball court. Just for reference, Smith retired with 877 career wins, the most by any NCAA coach when he retired, reached 11 Final Fours, and won 2 national championships in 1982 and 1993.

Just yesterday, Jerry Tarkanian, former University of Nevada, Las Vegas coach who led the Rebels to the 1990 national championship, passed away at the age of 84. I’d be writing until next Thursday if I wanted to unpack and delve into Tarkanian’s legacy as a basketball coach. I will just say that he broke a lot of barriers and put UNLV basketball on the map even though his all-too-often dealings with the NCAA dampened his public image. Tark the Shark will be remembered as one of those coaches who changed college basketball.

Despite these tragic events, a grand milestone was reached on Monday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The Spurs defeated the Pacers 95-93, a gritty win that perfectly mirrored Gregg Popovich’s previous 999 wins. Yes, Gregg Popovich became the ninth coach in the NBA to pile up 1,000 career wins. He joins an elite club that includes names such as Don Nelson, Jerry Sloan, Pat Riley and Phil Jackson. Despite being the newcomer to the group, Coach Pop has the other coaches’ numbers on many statistical categories.

For example, Popovich is the only one of these coaches to have a winning record against every team he has faced in his career with the Spurs.Jackson is the only other coach that has a winning record against at least 28 teams.Popovich is the third fastest coach to reach 1,000 wins, needing just 1,462 games to get there. All of Pop’s wins have come with San Antonio, along with his five NBA titles -- tied for third most all-time -- and three NBA Coach of the Year Awards.According to the Simple Rating System, a metric that adjusts margins of victory for strength of schedule, Pop’s teams are second to Jackson’s at 5.44 points per game above average against Jackson’s 5.94.

“I’ve been here a long time, and I’ve had good players. That’s the formula,” Popovich said.

Don’t sell yourself short, Pop. Let this column be a tribute to the excellent coaches that I have mentioned. All of them would probably respond to their successes by crediting their players. And to anyone who tries to discredit them, I am sure Michael Jordan, Larry Johnson, Tim Duncan and Tom Brady would probably have something to say back to you.