Gregg Popovich’s legendary career as a head coach in the NBA has officially come to an end.
The longtime San Antonio Spurs coach will no longer coach the team, but will transition to team president full time, the team announced on Friday. The news was originally reported by ESPN’s Shams Charania.
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Assistant Mitch Johnson, who stepped in as the Spurs’ interim coach in Popovich’s absence this season, will be hired as the team’s next head coach, Charania later reported.
Popovich, 76, has been away from the Spurs for much of the season after he suffered a small stroke in November. Popovich did not return to the team after that while he recovered, and assistant coach Mitch Johnson took over. The Spurs finished 34-48 this season and missed the playoffs completely.
“While my love and passion for the game remain, I’ve decided it’s time to step away as head coach,” Popovich said in a team statement. “I’m forever grateful to the wonderful players, coaches, staff and fans who allowed me to serve them as the Spurs head coach and am excited for the opportunity to continue to support the organization, community and city that are so meaningful to me.”
Popovich experienced a medical incident at a restaurant in San Antonio right before the first round of the playoffs got started in April, too. He was briefly transported to a hospital, but was then taken home to recover.
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Popovich has been a staple in the league for decades, and he’ll retire as the longest-tenured coach in league history. He’s also the winningest coach in NBA history.
“Coach Pop’s extraordinary impact on our family, San Antonio, the Spurs and the game of basketball is profound,” Spurs managing partner Peter J. Holt said in a statement. “His accolades and awards don’t do justice to the impact he has had on so many people. He is truly one-of-one as a person, leader and coach. Our entire family, alongside fans from across the globe, are grateful for his remarkable 29-year run as the head coach of the San Antonio Spurs.”
Popovich has been a member of the Spurs’ organization since 1994, and he actually hired himself to take over as the team’s head coach when he fired then-head coach Bob Hill in Dec. 1996. The move turned out to be the right one, as he quickly led the team to a winning record the following season and an NBA title in 1999. That marked the first in franchise history.
Popovich, with the trio of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginóbili, then won three championships over a five-year span from 2003-2007 in one of the great dynasty stretches in recent NBA history. The Spurs made it back to the Finals twice after that run under Popovich’s leadership, first in 2013 before they picked up his fifth title in 2014.
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Popovich will end his career with a 1,422-867 record. He’s the winningest head coach in NBA history, well ahead of Don Nelson’s 1,335 career wins. Milwaukee Bucks coach Doc Rivers is the only active coach inside the top 10 on the wins list. Popovich was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in 2023. He also had a long run with Team USA, and he helped lead the team to a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
“Gregg Popovich’s sustained success as head coach of the San Antonio Spurs is incomparable,’ NBA commissioner Adam Silver said. “In addition to his many accolades, including five NBA championships, the most wins in league history and an Olympic gold medal, Coach Pop has developed generations of players and coaches and been a driving force behind the global growth of basketball.
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“There are few people in the basketball community as beloved and revered as Coach Pop. We thank him for his extraordinary leadership and commitment to our sport and wish him well as he embarks on his new role with the Spurs organization.”
While leading the Spurs for nearly three decades, Popovich produced perhaps one of the best coaching trees in NBA history. Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr won a title while playing for Popovich in San Antonio, and former assistants Mike Brown, Ime Udoka, Mike Budenholzer and Taylor Jenkins all currently hold head coaching jobs in the league.
Former assistant Becky Hammon is now the head coach of the Las Vegas Aces, too. She was the first woman to lead an NBA team in a regular season game when Popovich was ejected in 2020. She was frequently in consideration for open NBA jobs before she made the jump to the WNBA.
Popovich also earned a reputation for being one of the most outspoken coaches in the latter half of his career. He frequently spoke out against former President Donald Trump, on the issue of gun control after mass shootings and during the Black Lives Matter movement in a way that few coaches in any league in the United States could.
While the Spurs have struggled in recent years — they haven’t made the playoffs or had a winning record since the 2018-19 campaign — Popovich’s impact on the league has still been remarkable. Now in retirement and looking back on his career, there is no doubt that he will go down as one of the best coaches in the history of the sport.
This news was originally published on this post .
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