One of the greatest coaches and leaders of men, Hall of Famer 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 be on the sidelines coaching the team but will transition upstairs to team president on a full-time basis, ESPN’s senior NBA insider Shams Charania reported on Friday.
“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 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 has been on a leave of absence from the Spurs for much of the season after he suffered a mild stroke in November. Popovich did not return to the team in an official capacity after that while he recovered, and assistant coach Mitch Johnson took over. The Spurs finished with a record of 34-48 this season and missed the playoffs completely.
“It’s been a heck of an experience,” said Johnson during his final interview of the season. “There’s no way to predict any season in this league. Too long, too much happens, too many circumstances, but for me, the experiences have been one-of-one for a ton of reasons, and that will stay with me forever and I’m forever grateful for that.”
Popovich had a medical incident at a restaurant in San Antonio right before the first round of the playoffs were set to begin in April, also. He was briefly transported by ambulance to a hospital but was then taken home to recover.
Popovich has been a fixture in the NBA for decades, and he will retire as the longest-tenured coach in all four of the major men’s professional sports leagues in the United States. He is also the winningest coach in NBA history.
Popovich, 76-years-of-age, has been a key member of the Spurs’ organization for 31 years, since 1994, and he hired himself to take over as the team’s head coach when he fired then-head coach Bob Hill in December 1996. The move turned out to be the right one and the start of a dynasty, as he quickly led the team to a winning record the following season and an NBA title in 1999 over the New York Knicks, during the lockout-shortened season. That marked the first in franchise history.
“Coach Pop’s extraordinary impact on our family, San Antonio, the Spurs and the game of basketball is profound,” said Spurs owner and managing partner Peter J. Holt. “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, with the trio of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, 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.
Embed from Getty ImagesPopovich will end his career with a 1,422-867 record. He is 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. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in 2023. Popovich also had a long run with Team USA as their coach, and he helped lead the team to a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
While leading the Spurs for nearly 30 years, 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 went on to hold head coaching jobs in the league.
Former assistant Becky Hammon is now the head coach of the Las Vegas Aces. She was the first woman to lead an NBA team in a regular season game when Popovich was ejected in 2020. She was a high-profile candidate 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 President Donald Trump, on the major 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 or would have.
While the Spurs have struggled in recent years, they have not 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.
With Popovich stepping aside as coach, the title of longest tenured active NBA head coach falls to Erik Spoelstra, who has led the Miami Heat since the 2008-09 season. Spoelstra and Popovich went head-to-head in back-to-back NBA Finals in 2013 and 2014, each winning once. The next longest-tenured coach is Kerr of the Golden State Warriors, who won the last two of his five championships as a player under Popovich before embarking on a general manager career with the Phoenix Suns and successful coaching career with the Warriors in 2014.
