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Gregg Popovich stepped down. Mike Tomlin moved up.
The decision by Popovich to end his run as coach of the San Antonio Spurs — which was announced by the team on Friday, along with the promotion of Mitch Johnson to the job — meant that the longest active tenure by any coach in any of the four U.S. major pro sports had ended.
Popovich lasted nearly 29 years as coach of the Spurs. And now, it’s Tomlin’s turn.
[MORE: Is Gregg Popovich the greatest coach in NBA history? His career by the numbers]
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Tomlin, the coach of the NFL‘s Pittsburgh Steelers, started in his current role in 2007, so he took over for Popovich as the longevity in-one-place leader among the major pro leagues.
Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra — who started in that job in 2008 — now becomes the coach with the longest current tenure with his team in the NBA.
In the NHL, Tampa Bay‘s Jon Cooper assumed the role of Lightning head coach in 2013; no other coach in that league has had his current job longer. And in MLB, the manager with the longest current tenure in one place is Tampa Bay‘s Kevin Cash — hired by the Rays for that job in December 2014.
A lot of change
Since Popovich took over as the Spurs’ coach in December 1996, there have been 303 coaching changes in the NBA.
A handful of those were interims, in place for just a few games. But on average, other teams changed coaches more than 10 times during Popovich’s run in San Antonio.
Brooklyn and Memphis changed coaches 17 times during the Popovich coaching era. Sacramento did it 16 times. Milwaukee, Cleveland, Detroit, the Los Angeles Lakers, New York and Washington all made 15 changes in that span. And when Phoenix hires Mike Budenholzer’s replacement, it’ll be 15 changes by the Suns as well.
The pictures of stability in those Popovich years: Miami and Utah have changed coaches four times and Dallas has five times.
As far as individual coaches themselves, during the Popovich era four different coaches — Alvin Gentry, Doc Rivers, Larry Brown and Mike D’Antoni — all coached for five different franchises.
NBA coaching wins
Popovich is the career leader in NBA coaching victories with 1,422 in the regular season and 1,592 when adding in the postseason.
The new leader among active coaches becomes Milwaukee’s Rivers (1,162 regular-season games, 1,277 including playoffs). Rivers’ path to catching Popovich for the regular-season record would mean he’d have to average 52 regular-season wins in each of the next five years.
Indiana’s Rick Carlisle moves up to No. 2 among active coaches with 993 regular-season wins, followed by Miami’s Spoelstra with 787.
Wins with one team
Nobody had more with one team, obviously, and this record is probably very, very safe.
All 1,422 of Popovich’s regular-season wins came with the Spurs and only one other person — Utah’s Jerry Sloan, with 1,127 — has won more than 800 with one team.
Spoelstra is 13 wins away from 800 with the Heat (excluding playoffs), so he’ll almost certainly join that club next season. But he’d still be at least a decade away from even getting into the neighborhood of Popovich’s win number with the Spurs.
Record vs. other coaches
There are 24 coaches who went against Popovich at least 30 times, including playoff games. Of those, only four had winning records against Popovich. Phil Jackson went 41-30 in their meetings, Steve Kerr went 28-17, Billy Donovan went 19-16 and Spoelstra went 23-22.
They aren’t exactly slouches, of course. Jackson is in the Hall of Fame. Donovan is being enshrined this year. It’s reasonable to think Kerr and Spoelstra — coaches who both have multiple NBA championships — will find their way there as well.
How many players?
The Spurs used 222 players during Popovich’s tenure with the Spurs, not counting the 77 games he missed at the end of this season. The most: As would be expected, it was the Big Three of Tim Duncan (1,643 including playoffs), Tony Parker (1,424) and Manu Ginobili (1,275).
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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