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Nam Tran

Nam Tran

Hey! I write about English grammar, basketball and society (I know, that's an odd combo). Grab my books here: https://payhip.com/wrl

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What’s Better Than Winning? Being Good

Gregg Popovich wants you to live with virtue.

3 min readAug 10, 2026

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Photo by Oleksii S on Unsplash

Former San Antonio Spurs’ Head Coach Gregg Popovich doesn’t care about the results of ball games.

He wants to win games, yes, but it’s not the end-all, be-all because he’d much rather his players be people with integrity than champions.

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“The wins and losses are all crap,” Popovich said during his Hall of Fame induction speech. “The highs and lows are all crap. It’s illusory. It doesn’t really exist. What exists is, seeing these guys and their kids, those relationships with your assistant coaches, everybody else you’re with — your colleagues, your friends — because that’s what you take with you when you move along. All those wins and losses, they fade away. But those relationships stick with you forever, and that’s where the self-esteem and self-satisfaction comes.”

The San Antonio Spurs have lost a lot of games and many playoff series.

That’s just how basketball is. You win some, you lose some; you can’t be the victor every year.

But instead of pouting like an old man who isn’t allowed to eat his favourite dessert anymore, every time his team lost a big game, Popovich wanted them to celebrate their…

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Nam Tran
Nam Tran

Written by Nam Tran

Hey! I write about English grammar, basketball and society (I know, that's an odd combo). Grab my books here: https://payhip.com/wrl