Gregg Popovich is stepping away from coaching, but will remain with the San Antonio Spurs as team president, the franchise announced Friday. The news comes after Popovich missed most of the 2024-25 NBA season after suffering a stroke in November. The Spurs legend is one of the greatest coaches in NBA history. In 29 seasons holding San Antonio’s top job, the 76-year-old Popovich won an NBA record 1,422 regular-season games. He is a five-time NBA champion and six-time NBA finalist. Only Phil Jackson and Pat Riley have won more playoff games, and only Jackson and Red Auerbach have won more championships in the NBA. The Spurs are hiring Mitch Johnson — who filled in as the team’s interim head coach for 77 games this season — as their full-time head coach to replace Popovich.
On Nov. 2, 2024, Popovich experienced a health issue and immediately took a leave of absence. It was later revealed that Popovich had suffered a mild stroke, and he ultimately did not return to the bench this season. Johnson took over as the interim coach in his stead, but the Spurs reportedly allowed Popovich time and space to make his own decision about his future. Now, despite a five-year extension he signed in 2023, one of the true icons of the coaching industry has ended his legendary career on the sidelines.
“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’s road to the Hall of Fame was fairly unorthodox even by coaching standards. After playing for Air Force and serving five years of active duty with the Armed Forces Basketball Team, Popovich began his coaching career at his alma mater before eventually taking over as the head coach of Pomona-Pitzer, a college program in Southern California. He remained there for almost a decade before taking his first NBA jobs as an assistant coach, first with the Spurs, and then with the Golden State Warriors.
His return to the Spurs did not come as a coach, but rather, as the general manager in 1994. In 1996, however, he fired head coach Bob Hill and took the job himself. San Antonio struggled to 20-62 record without star center David Robinson, but won the 1997 NBA Draft Lottery, picked Tim Duncan, and the rest was history. Popovich won his first NBA championship soon after in 1999.
With Robinson aging, though, he needed to get creative in how he built a long-term core around Duncan. To do so, he brought the Spurs to the forefront of the international basketball community by drafting Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili to serve as his backcourt. The Spurs would go on to bring in several other well-known international players, including, most recently, French super-prospect Victor Wembanyama, but none meant as much to Popovich as Parker and Ginobili. The trio of Parker, Ginobili and Duncan were all together alongside Popovich for San Antonio’s next four titles, and all four are now in the Hall of Fame.
“Coach Pop’s extraordinary impact on our family, San Antonio, the Spurs and the game of basketball is profound,” Spurs chairman Peter 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 this remarkable 29-year run as the head coach of the San Antonio Spurs.”
Gregg Popovich by the numbers
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1. Gregg Popovich – 1,422 |
1. Phil Jackson – 11 |
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2. Don Nelson – 1,335 |
2. Red Auerbach – 9 |
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3. Lenny Wilkens -1,332 |
T3. Gregg Popovich – 5 |
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4. Jerry Sloan – 1,221 |
T3. John Kundla – 5 |
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5. Pat Riley – 1,210 |
T3. Pat Riley – 5 |
In addition to his historic NBA resume, the former Air Force standout represented his country as the head coach for Team USA in the 2019 FIBA World Cup and the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. While Team USA finished in seventh in the World Cup, it came back to win gold in Tokyo with a dramatic 87-82 victory over France. He was succeeded with Team USA by his former backup point guard in San Antonio, Steve Kerr.
With Popovich stepping down, Johnson is officially taking over in San Antonio. The Spurs’ job would have been one of the most desirable head coaching jobs in the NBA, but the team and Popovich are trusting it to Johnson, who coached every Spurs game since early November.
Johnson is the latest person on the Popovich coaching tree to get a head coaching gig. Four of the 29 other coaches to open this season with top jobs were former assistants under Popovich in San Antonio: Mike Budenholzer, Ime Udoka, Mike Brown and Will Hardy. Two more, Taylor Jenkins and Quin Snyder, were the head coach of San Antonio’s G-League affiliate, the Austin Spurs (or, as they were known at the time, the Austin Toros). Two more, Doc Rivers and Steve Kerr, played for Popovich in San Antonio, and of the 21 coaches we haven’t covered, 11 more have at some point worked as an assistant under one of those first eight. It’s harder to find a team whose coaching staff wasn’t influenced by Popovich in some significant way than ones that were.