The legendary career of Gregg Popovich as the NBA chief coach has officially ended.
San Antonio Spurs's long -standing coach will no longer accept the team, but will go to the full -time team president, the team announced on Friday. The news was initially reported by Charania Shams d'Espn.
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The assistant Mitch Johnson, who entered the interim coach of the Spurs in the absence of a Popovich this season, will be hired As a team's head coach, Charania later reported.
Popovich, 76, was far from the Spurs for much of the season after He suffered a little blow in November. Popovich did not go back to the team after that while he recovered, and deputy coach Mitch Johnson took over. The Spurs finished 34-48 this season and completely missed the playoffs.
“Although my love and my passion for the game remain, I decided that it was time to move away as a chief coach,” Popovich said in a team press release. “I am eternally grateful to the wonderful players, coaches, staff and fans who allowed me to serve them as a head coach of the Spurs and I am delighted to continue to support the organization, the community and the city which are so significant for me.”
Popovich experienced a medical incident in a restaurant In San Antonio just before the first round of the playoffs in April also. He was briefly transported to the hospital, but was then brought home to recover.
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Popovich has been a must for the league for decades, and he will retire as the oldest coach in the history of the League. He is also the most winning coach in the history of the NBA.
“The extraordinary impact of the pop coach on our family, San Antonio, the Spurs and the Game of Basketball is deep,” said Spurs director of Spurs, Peter J. Holt, in a statement. “His distinctions and prices do not do justice to the impact he had on so many people. He is really unique as a person, leader and coach. Our family, alongside fans of the world, is grateful for his remarkable 29-year-old race as a chief trainer of the San Antonio Spurs.”
Popovich has been a member of the organization of the Spurs since 1994, and he was in fact hired to take over as a team-and-header-header when he pulled the head coach of the time, Bob Hill, in December 1996. The move turned out to be the right one, because he quickly led the winning record the following season and an NBA title in 1999.
Popovich, with Tim Duncan's trio, Tony Parker and Manu Ginóbili, then won three championships over a period of five years from 2003 to 2007 in one of the great sections of the NBA recent history dynasty. The Spurs returned to the final twice after this race under the direction of Popovich, first in 2013 before winning his fifth title in 2014.
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Popovich will end his career with a record of 1,422-867. He is the most victorious head coach in the history of the NBA, well in advance on the 1,335 career victories of Don Nelson. Milwaukee Bucks coach, Doc Rivers, is the only active coach in the top 10 on the victory list. Popovich was inducted at the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in 2023. He also had a long race with the American team, and he helped the team lead to a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021.
“The sustained success of Gregg Popovich as a head coach of the San Antonio Spurs is incomparable,” said NBA commissioner Adam Silver.
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“There are few people in the basketball community as appreciated and venerated as a pop coach. We thank him for his extraordinary leadership and his commitment to our sport and wish him good luck when he embarks on his new role with the organization of the Spurs.”
While directing the Spurs for almost three decades, Popovich may have produced one of the best coach trees in the history of the NBA. Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr won a title by playing for Popovich in San Antonio, and former assistants Mike Brown, Ime Udoka, Mike Budenholzer and Taylor Jenkins are currently occupying job coach in the league.
The former assistant Becky Hammon is now the head coach of Las Vegas Aces as well. She was the first woman to lead an NBA team in a regular season game when Popovich was expelled in 2020. She was often in consideration for NBA jobs before she went to the WNBA.
Popovich has also acquired the reputation of being one of the most frank coaches in the second half of his career. It frequently spoke against former President Donald Trumpon The question of control of firearms after mass shots And During the Black Lives Matter movement In a way that few coaches in any league in the United States could.
Although the Spurs have been struggling in recent years – they have not made the playoffs or have had a record for victories since the 2018-2019 campaign – the impact of Popovich on the League has always been remarkable. Now retired and looking back on his career, there is no doubt that he will be one of the best coaches in the history of sport.
