H e had bought a house in the Chicago area two months earlier. Michael Jordan had returned to the Bulls just months before that. And then, in October of 1995, he got the call.

You’ve been traded to the Spurs.

“I was thinking,” Will Perdue said last week, laughing, “‘What did I do?’”

Many in San Antonio also weren’t thrilled about the trade. To get Perdue, the Spurs gave up Dennis Rodman, a celebrity/star unlike anything the franchise had seen.

But this move was a sign of what was to come in San Antonio. Gregg Popovich would build a team his way, caring more about the group than the individual. And after Perdue blended in so well that first season that the Spurs had a perfect month, Popovich wasn’t satisfied then, either.

He made another move that continues on.

Perdue now works as a broadcaster, and last week he went over this time in San Antonio. He said his reservations about the trade ended as soon as he talked with Popovich.

Popovich was the general manager then. But he was already acting like the coach when he told Perdue that the Spurs were putting no limits on him. If Perdue thought he could expand his game, then, please, show us what you’ve got.

“It might have been,” Perdue remembers, “the best thing that could have happened to my career.”

Perdue flourished. That first season he sometimes backed up David Robinson, and sometimes he played next to him. He proved to be more versatile than most thought his 7-foot frame could be.

Perdue certainly wasn’t on Rodman’s level. And as the Bulls won, Popovich and the Spurs heard how foolish they were. Rodman made sure of that.

But Perdue represented the Popovich formula. Perdue fit, and the Spurs purred along that first season with newfound chemistry.

Twenty years ago this month showed how much. The Spurs won all 16 games in March of 1996, something only one other team in history had done in any month.

The other team: The 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers that won 33 straight games, 69 regular-season games and a title.

A 16-0 month has been done four other times, including the Spurs of 2013-14, who also were undefeated in March. They went on to their fifth championship.

Two of the others — the 2012-13 Clippers and the 2014-15 Hawks — didn’t win a title. The fourth, this year’s Warriors, are favorites to repeat.

So while the feat indicates what is possible, it also doesn’t guarantee anything. And for Perdue, who won three rings with the Bulls and one with the Spurs, it’s a minor footnote. “I don’t walk around,” Perdue joked, “talking about that.”

Still, at the time it was satisfying and meaningful and fun. “We would tell each other,” Perdue said, “it’s too bad we aren’t playing every day.”

They instead played every other day that month, except for one back-to-back on the road. Perdue remembers the nature of that group, and how they showed up even when practice wasn’t scheduled.

“We just wanted to keep it going,” Perdue said.

The franchise had never looked better. The Spurs had reached the Western Conference finals the year before, and they hosted the 1996 All-Star Game. The perfect March that followed seemed to be part of the incline.

Robinson was named the player of the month. Bob Hill was named the coach of the month. And everyone else — from Perdue to Avery Johnson to Sean Elliott — thought the best was still in front of them.

“Then the season ended,” said Perdue, “with a thud.”

Perdue thinks such a rise and fall is the nature of the NBA. But he also thinks those Spurs weren’t yet mentally tough enough to beat the team that eliminated them in the postseason, the Utah Jazz.

“I know for a fact,” Perdue said, “Pop recognized that.”

Perdue says he’s never been around anyone who knew the game better than Hill. Hill was thorough, too. Perdue says the Spurs worked on every conceivable scenario in practice.

Three seconds left, down by one, ball out on your own baseline?

The Spurs had a play for that, and for every variation of it.

But Hill’s knowledge, Perdue said, “got the best of him.” The Spurs would face one of those situations they had worked on in practice, yet Hill would pull out a clipboard and devise something else entirely.

Perdue remembers what another coach once told him: “Too smart is dumb.”

What eventually followed was a coaching change that is still in place. If trading Rodman was Popovich’s first dramatic move, replacing Hill was the definitive one.

Perdue said he had to adjust to Popovich, and one night in particular stays with him. Then, he tried to guard Karl Malone and failed.

“I’m in the locker room afterward, and I’ve got ice on my knees and shoulders and just about everywhere else,” Perdue said. “Malone was no fun. Pop walks over and puts his arm around me, and he said, ‘I appreciate the effort.’”

Perdue had heard such postgame reassurances from coaches before — until Popovich followed with, “But you hurt us.”

Perdue’s first reaction: “I wanted to strangle him.”

Perdue already knew he hadn’t done his job. Besides, wasn’t Malone a Hall of Fame player?

Perdue stewed until about an hour later, when Popovich acted as if the game had never happened. This is one quality Perdue learned to love about Popovich: He always separated the game from real life, and he cared about his players.

“He always had my interest at heart. I knew that from Day 1. And I can bet that every single player he’s coached can tell you they have broken bread with him.”

Another quality Perdue came to admire was Popovich’s honesty. “He didn’t sugarcoat what had happened,” he said. “He wanted me to know that even though I had tried, I didn’t execute the game plan. He was disappointed. He was also telling me, ‘I know you can play better.’”

Maybe Popovich’s strengths would have gone unnoticed had the Spurs not gone on to win the Tim Duncan lottery that season. But the same Popovich that Perdue saw in the early days remained after Duncan arrived, and that included an unusual lineup the next season.

Popovich, ever searching, won games with a frontline of 7-footers — Robinson, Duncan and Perdue.

“Who else would have tried that?” Perdue said.

Perdue has been coached by others, and he’s one of nine who were coached by both Popovich and Phil Jackson. But Popovich was unique, Perdue said, because he was the only one who could be upbeat after losses because they had learned something.

Another story from Perdue:

“Pop did this every single year, too, and he probably will again this season if he hasn’t already. One day he will walk in after a few wins and announce we aren’t playing well enough. He will say we’re going to run five plays. And when we perfect those five, we will add a sixth. He wants to make the game simpler.”

Perdue left San Antonio after the 1999 championship. But he’s been watching from a distance since then, and he’s come to see Popovich as a great magician.

“One hand catches your eye,” he said, “and the other hand is hiding the quarter. He’s throwing everybody off, whether it’s what he says to the press or what he says to his players. He always has a plan, and he did a long time ago when he traded away one of the game’s best rebounders and defenders.”

For Perdue.

bharvey@express-news.net

Twitter: @Buck_SA