Gregg Popovich, The NBA’s All-Time Wins Leader, Steps Down As Coach Of San Antonio Spurs

Gregg Popovich stepped down as coach of the San Antonio Spurs on Friday, ending a three-decade run that noticed him lead the group to 5 NBA championships, turn into the league’s all-time wins chief and earn induction into the Basketball Corridor of Fame.

“Whereas my love and keenness for the sport stay, I’ve determined it’s time to step away as head coach,” Popovich stated.

He’ll stay as group president.

Popovich, 76, missed all however 5 video games this season after having a stroke on the group’s area on Nov. 2. He has not spoken publicly since, although had addressed his group no less than as soon as and launched an announcement in late March saying that he hoped to return to teaching.

That gained’t be taking place.

“I’m without end grateful to the fantastic gamers, coaches, workers and followers who allowed me to serve them because the Spurs head coach and am excited for the chance to proceed to assist the group, group and metropolis which are so significant to me,” Popovich stated.

Popovich’s profession ends with a report of 1,422-869, which does embody the 77 video games — 32 wins and 45 losses — that have been coached by Spurs assistant Mitch Johnson this season. He additionally gained 170 playoff video games with the Spurs, essentially the most by any coach with anybody group and the third-most total behind solely Phil Jackson’s 229 and Pat Riley’s 171.

“The most effective there ever was,” Spurs nice Manu Ginobili stated final 12 months of Popovich.

Popovich was a three-time coach of the 12 months, led the U.S. to a gold medal on the Tokyo Olympics and coached six Corridor of Famers in San Antonio — Ginobili, David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Dominique Wilkins and Pau Gasol. He went up in opposition to 170 totally different coaches throughout his time within the NBA and there have been 303 teaching modifications made within the league, together with interim strikes, in the course of the Popovich period.

“I’ve bought a video on my telephone that’s, like, priceless,” stated Chris Paul, who performed for the Spurs this previous season — going there, largely, due to the lure of taking part in for Popovich. “It was us in Oklahoma Metropolis, earlier than shootaround, and Pop is doing ballhandling stuff. All these years I’ve at all times seen Pop teaching in a go well with, however I didn’t know the way exhausting of a employee he was in terms of coaching.”

That work ethic, Paul stated, carried over into this 12 months after the stroke and Popovich’s dedication to his rehabilitation course of.

“I used to be the primary one to get to the sector for video games, and I’d stroll previous the coaching room and Pop could be on the treadmill,” Paul stated. “I really had an opportunity to be in there whereas Pop is doing rehab or whatnot. So, to see how exhausting he works, that’s what I’m glad I bought an opportunity to see. It had nothing to do with basketball. It simply confirmed who he’s.”

Popovich, in his position as normal supervisor of the Spurs, made the transfer to fireplace coach Bob Hill and promote himself into that job on Dec. 10, 1996. The timing appeared, at greatest, awkward. The Spurs have been 3-15 at that time, having performed all 18 of these video games with out Robinson, who was nearly to return again from damage. Popovich took over on the day that Robinson returned to the lineup.

“A change in course was mandatory,” Popovich stated that day.

The Spurs hadn’t modified course once more since.

“Coach Pop’s extraordinary impression on our household, San Antonio, the Spurs and the sport of basketball is profound,” Spurs managing accomplice Peter J. Holt stated. “His accolades and awards don’t do justice to the impression he has had on so many individuals. He’s actually one-of-one as an individual, chief and coach. Our total household, alongside followers from throughout the globe, are grateful for his exceptional 29-year run as the top coach of the San Antonio Spurs.”

The fortunes modified — Duncan was picked No. 1 total within the 1997 draft – however the course beneath Popovich at all times stayed the identical. The primary championship got here in 1999; others adopted in 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014. In his first 22 seasons as head coach, the Spurs had 22 profitable data, the primary 20 of these seasons profitable no less than 60% of the time.

His choice to step away now comes with the Spurs having simply accomplished the second 12 months of a rebuild round French star Victor Wembanyama, who arrived touted as the following San Antonio nice and has achieved nothing to recommend he gained’t reside as much as that billing.

Popovich performed on the U.S. Air Pressure Academy, famously wasn’t picked in a bid to make the 1972 U.S. Olympic group — some nonetheless say he merited a spot on that group — and wound up turning into a coach who might need been completely content material to run Pomona-Pitzer, a Division III program in California, for everything of his skilled life. That college had misplaced 88 consecutive convention video games when he arrived; it didn’t take lengthy for Popovich to ship a convention championship.

Ultimately, the NBA known as. In time, Popovich could be paired with Robinson, then the patriarch of a dynasty fueled by Duncan, Parker and Ginobili. And out of that, Popovich put collectively a profession like none different.

“Everybody is aware of the superb job he’s achieved and all of the accomplishments,” longtime coach Larry Brown stated in 2021. “I want extra folks actually may know the kind of particular person that he’s.”

He was famously grumpy, preferred to conflict with reporters, hardly ever provided any particulars of his basketball or non-public life apart from what was mandatory. It was concurrently actual and an act; Popovich has a a lot softer facet as effectively — he quietly championed causes just like the San Antonio Meals Financial institution for years and wasn’t afraid to make his political beliefs identified. And people fortunate sufficient to know him discover him hilarious.

“He has an incredible humorousness,” Boston ahead Jayson Tatum stated whereas taking part in for Popovich in the course of the Tokyo Olympics 4 years in the past. “I suppose the informal fan sees the one that does these interviews postgame, however that’s not the case of who he’s in any respect. I completely love spending time with him.”

A loss within the 2013 NBA Finals crushed Popovich, whose Spurs have been in place to shut out the Miami Warmth in six video games, misplaced Recreation 6 in time beyond regulation after Ray Allen’s 3-pointer with 5.2 seconds remaining in regulation stored the Warmth alive, then fell in Recreation 7. However within the moments after the ultimate horn, as Miami coach Erik Spoelstra embraced his workers, Popovich joined the hug with a large smile.

Spoelstra, who grew to become head coach of the Warmth in 2008, now turns into the league’s longest-tenured in his present place.

“He’s at all times simply been an unimaginable instance of sophistication, dignity,” Spoelstra stated of Popovich. “To have the ability to do this after wins or losses, I simply assume it’s an excellent instance which you could nonetheless have class no matter how the end result comes throughout a recreation.”

When the Spurs beat the Warmth for the title in a finals rematch in 2014, it was Spoelstra who felt the sting of shedding. And as soon as once more, it was Popovich who despatched congratulations on a job effectively achieved.

“There is no such thing as a one on the market like Pop,” Golden State coach Steve Kerr stated.

Popovich’s was a tenure like few others. Popovich coached the Spurs for 29 seasons, a span almost unmatched in U.S. main professional sports activities historical past. Connie Mack managed the Philadelphia Athletics for 50 years, George Halas coached the Chicago Bears for 40 years and John McGraw managed the New York Giants for 31 years. These three tenures — all wrapping up effectively over a half-century in the past — are the one ones exceeding the size of Popovich’s teaching run with the Spurs; his 29-year period in San Antonio was matched by the Dallas Cowboys’ Tom Landry and the Inexperienced Bay Packers’ Curly Lambeau.

“It means I’m previous,” Popovich stated final 12 months.

Popovich broke a gender barrier of types within the league when he employed Becky Hammon because the league’s first feminine full-time paid assistant coach. Hammon, now coach of the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces, would additionally turn into the primary feminine head summer season league coach within the NBA and first feminine appearing head coach when she changed Popovich for a recreation in 2020.

“Basketball is basketball,” South Carolina ladies’s coach Daybreak Staley stated when requested about Popovich in 2017. “It doesn’t have a gender. It has a thoughts. It has an strategy. It has a willingness. Given the chance, ladies can excel on this recreation. As you may see. Becky Hammon is doing an excellent job. You want extra folks like Coach Popovich to offer them alternatives to be taught, to develop, and to embrace it. I don’t assume he sees gender. I believe he sees somebody that has an excellent basketball thoughts, that’s tireless. When you’re given that chance, you see nice issues come out of it.”

Popovich spoke about wine each time he may and provided his views on politics and present occasions however hardly ever provided a lot perception into teaching selections or personnel issues. It was virtually military-like secrecy, which made sense provided that Popovich was a graduate of the U.S. Air Pressure Academy and was an knowledgeable on, amongst different issues, the rise and fall of the Soviet Union.

His love of nation led to him taking a small facet job throughout his San Antonio tenure — that being teaching USA Basketball for the 2019 World Cup and the Tokyo Olympics two years later. His World Cup group completed seventh, the worst putting ever for a U.S. group with NBA gamers. His Olympic group gained gold.

“It’s unimaginable to separate it if in case you have been within the navy,” Popovich stated when requested in regards to the parallels of being on the Air Pressure Academy and training the nation’s nationwide group. “I’ve had classmates which have fought in wars — I’ve not — and a few of them are now not with us. You get an appreciation for individuals who have sacrificed. So, when you’ve a chance to do that on your nation, it’s unimaginable to say no. I like being a part of it.”