On multiple occasions, Will Hardy has referred to his time spent in the film room as an assistant coach with the San Antonio Spurs as getting a Ph.D. in coaching. The professor? Gregg Popovich .
The Utah Jazz announced Monday that the team had signed Hardy to a contract extension that will keep him as the head coach of the team through 2031.
Coincidentally on Monday, Popovich made his first official appearance since stepping aside last week as head coach and taking on the role as president of basketball operations for the Spurs, a move that was triggered after he suffered a stroke in November.
Hardy is nowhere near the first coach to branch out from the Popovich tree and find success. That tree extends far and wide in the NBA world as well as the collegiate and international basketball ranks. But the mark that Popovich left on Hardy is enduring.
"I learned an incredible amount from Pop. I think he really set the foundation of values for me that you carry into your team. I also recognize that I'm not Pop, and our personalities are not the same, and so I'm not trying to emulate Pop."
"Getting to share the news with him, that's a great moment," Hardy said on Monday. "It's one of the few moments where you take a moment and take a step back and think about the journey to this point and all the people that have been very impactful along the way — Pop obviously being the most prominent."
Under the tutelage of Popovich — and the countless other assistant coaches in San Antonio who have gone on to have remarkable careers as head coaches — there were innumerable lessons about what works on the court. But Hardy has maintained that the most important thing he's learned about coaching is that the relationships and the people are what matter.
That's a page taken right out of Gregg Popovich's book.
"The longer you're at it, the more you realize the O's and X's are a small part — an important part at certain times during a game, but for the overall picture a very small part — of what makes a program develop a culture and lasts for a long time," Popovich said in 2022 . "It's all about the people."
Understanding that principle is what Popovich said stood out about Hardy from the beginning. Hardy was able to earn respect and build relationships in equally meaningful ways that impressed the veteran coach.
As the 2024-25 season was winding down, I asked every player on the Jazz roster if Hardy was a good coach. Everyone said that he was and every player made a point of saying that they know Hardy cares about them as people first and basketball players second.
Utah Jazz coach Will Hardy congratulates Utah Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen as he comes off the floor during game against the Raptors at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Friday, Jan. 12, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
Then I asked how he keeps the players accountable. The general consensus was that Hardy kept an even playing field when it came to accountability. He would call out Lauri Markkanen during a film session, practice or game just as soon as he would call out a player on a two-way contract or any of the rookies.
"We want everybody to be held accountable to the same standards," Hardy said. "That's something that I was fortunate to witness up close and personal throughout my coaching career, with the coaches that I've worked for.
"And I ultimately think it's the best way to build team cohesion — everybody understanding that the standards have to be the same for everybody, and just because you're on a different contract or you play more minutes doesn't mean that you get to just let things slide."
That philosophy and way of teaching goes hand-in-hand with nurturing genuine relationships with the players. Being able to coach Markkanen hard and sometimes in a tough fashion is only tolerated because Markkanen knows that Hardy cares about him and truly wants him to succeed to improve.
In turn, the youngest players on the team accept hard coaching and blunt honesty because they see that the best player on the team allows it, and they too know that Hardy cares.
"If that means that in certain moments, they're all mad at me, that's fine," Hardy said. "That comes with the territory, and that can be good for a group as well. But our players deserve a lot of credit for how they've handled themselves. I'm very grateful that they allow me to coach them as hard as I do."
Seeing Hardy set a standard for effort and a level of competitiveness as a part of the team culture and being able to have every player buy in to the vision for the team helped general manager Justin Zanik and CEO Danny Ainge trust in Hardy's ability to shepherd the Jazz through not only the rebuilding phase that the team is in, but into the phase that comes next.
Signing Hardy to an extension that will keep him at the helm of the team for the next six years means that they intend to have him around when the team is ready to contend again.
"Absolutely, and if I had a vote, I honestly would cast my vote for Coach of the Year for Will Hardy," Zanik said last month when asked if Hardy was a coach he would want here to lead a team when the tides turn. "He's an incredible teacher, incredible communicator, a great partner ... he is truly invested in our players' individual development, as well as obviously the development for us to be better as a team. I'm actually not sure there's anybody better in the league than he is at how much he invests in our group."
Hardy understands the shadow that the Popovich tree casts is long and wide. After all, Popovich was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2023, spent 29 years as the Spurs coach, winning Coach of the Year three times along the way, won five championships and is the league's career wins leader with 1,422 regular-season victories.
But, Hardy isn't trying to be Popovich, which is coincidentally another of Popovich's lessons. Understanding that coaching is about people is a good foundation, but every coach has to do it with their own flair, their own personality and their own sense of what will work. They have to be ready to branch out on their own and take things in a direction that is uniquely them.
That's what Hardy intends to do with the Jazz. He'll always be grateful for the 11 years he spent with the Spurs and the season he spent as Ime Udoka's assistant with the Boston Celtics , but he isn't trying to copy anyone.
"I learned an incredible amount from Pop, I think he really set the foundation of values for me that you carry into your team," Hardy said. "I also recognize that I'm not Pop, and our personalities are not the same, and so I'm not trying to emulate Pop. I do think that the values system, though, is similar. That being said he's taught me more than I could even explain ... has ultimately shaped a ton of my coaching identity. But I do have to remain true to myself and do it my way and with my voice."
San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Becky Hammon talks with head coach Gregg Popovich, center, on the bench as assistant coaches Tim Duncan, second form left, and Will Hardy, second from right, watch during game against the Orlando Magic Friday, Nov. 15, 2019, in Orlando, Fla. | Phelan M. Ebenhack, Associated Press
