SHANGHAI — The best coaching move Gregg Popovich made with Team USA thus far was to skip on ordering the wine for a night.
The Americans’ first team dinner together as part of the FIBA World Cup experience, the kind that Popovich is famous for with the San Antonio Spurs, where the players come to the restaurant, and the foodie coach has already ordered a full spread of appetizers, with the finest wines open and breathing on the tables, took place a couple weeks ago during the Los Angeles leg of training camp at BOA Steakhouse in Santa Monica.
Sure enough, as Kemba Walker and Donovan Mitchell and Joe Harris and the rest of them walked into the room, the oysters and clams and heirloom tomatoes were waiting.
But the wines the players enjoyed all night? They weren’t picked by Popovich, who, again, is known internationally for doing this very thing — choosing the right reds and whites for the occasion. He let Kyle Kuzma pick.
The decision achieved…
