Tuesday, November 9, 2010

BUILDING A QUALITY PROGRAM

From Manu Ginobili to Tony Parker to DeJuan Blair and numerous others, the San Antonio Spurs have made a habit of turning overlooked players into major contributors... and there's a good reason why.

There’s a hallway in the AT&T Center outside of the team’s locker room, training room and the coaches’ offices. It’s where all the reporters hang out to interview Coach Pop before the game, and all the players come in from the parking garage.

In this hallway, one wall is lined with framed pictures. A few are team pictures from over the years, but most are action shots of each of the players. Jacob Riis’ famous quote about pounding the rock hangs near here, transcribed into different languages so that everyone — not just the native English speakers — can burn it onto their brains.

About a week or two ago, the pictures were changed out for newer ones. Interestingly enough, Alonzo Gee is in one of the photos. It’s an image of Gee going up for a dunk against Caja Laboral in the preseason. There is also one of Garrett Temple.

Gee could be traded or sent down to Austin today and no one would be surprised. The same could be said for Temple. And yet, the Spurs make it a priority to do the little things to make sure that every player feels a part of the team. I doubt there would’ve been anyone complaining of the pictures of Gee and Temple were just a couple more photos of members of the big three, but they aren’t.

(Thanks Associated Press &  48 Minutes of Hell)

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