Pop sad to lose Duncan, excited about U.S. team

9:15 PM ET

LAS VEGAS – Gregg Popovich is probably never going to get over basketball without Tim Duncan.

“There’s a big hole in my belly,” Popovich said of Duncan, the future Hall of Famer he coached for his entire 19-year career in San Antonio, who retired last week.

“I think about the culture and his humor. I’ve been used to that for 20 years and now it’s gone. I have to find that in some other way, some other power, some other player. I have to do something. But life goes on for all of us.”

This week, life without Duncan begins in earnest as Popovich coaches the Select Team at USA Basketball’s training camp in Las Vegas. It’s a way to get to know some of the players he’ll likely be coaching when he succeeds Mike Krzyzewski as head coach of Team USA after these Summer Olympics. But it’s also become an exciting challenge in the august of Popovich’s own Hall of Fame career.

“I guess I can never stop, I can never retire,” Gregg Popvich joked about his coaching future with both the Spurs and Team USA. Jason Miller/Getty Images

It was always believed Popovich, 67, would retire at the same time Duncan walked away. Now he’s committed to coaching the San Antonio Spurs and Team USA for at least the next four years.

“You know what happened? I just got roped in,” Popovich joked. “I had to keep making promises. Manu [Ginobili] was going to sign a few years back and he …

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