The San Antonio Spurs already have its replacement for the legendary head coach Gregg Popovich. The team hired Mitch Johnson as His next head coach.
Johnson, 38, was a temporary coach of the team last season after Popovich took leave after a stroke. The Spurs finished 34-48 and missed the playoffs under the direction of Johnson.
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Popovich spent the majority of the NBA 2024-25 NBA season away from the team and in recovery. He was finally Excluded for the seasonBut has made enough progress to meet the spurs in person after the stars break.
Shortly after the end of the season, reports emerged suggesting that the Spurs Allow Popovich to decide If he returns and would train the team for the NBA 2025-26 season. In April, Popovich, 76, was transported to hospital after live a medical episode in a restaurant. He was released and would have been in a stable state at home.
Friday, Popovich announced that he would resign As a team -mark coach after 29 seasons. He leaves this role as the most winning coach in the history of the NBA. Popovich will remain with the organization and will serve as president of the Spurs team.
Johnson, on the other hand, will officially take the recovery of the Spurs head coach after almost a decade with the team. After playing in Stanford at the university and spent time in Europe and Gague G, Johnson was finally hired to train the Spurs of Austin – an affiliate of the Gague G of the San Antonio Spurs – in 2016. He led the team to a Gague G championship in 2018 before joining San Antonio as an assistant trainer under Popovich in 2019.
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In this role, Johnson was the acting head coach of the team twice before the NBA 2024-25 season. He filled for a match in 2021 when Popovich attended the enthronement of the Tim Duncan renown temple. Johnson also trained the team for a match in 2023, when Popovich was not available due to a disease. Johnson went 1-1 in these competitions.
After being immersed in the role of head coaching last season, Johnson will now have a complete off -season to prepare adequately to the position. Spurs are looking for an improvement after a tumultuous year, and Johnson will have to show that he can guide the team forward. Recover Victor Wembanyama injury Will certainly help, just like the two first round choices of the team in the NBA 2025 NBA.
While the future of the team seems brilliant, the follow -up of the traces of Popovich will not be an easy task. Living as high standards that Popovich has established during his mandate as a team -mower of the team is impossible, and one of Johnson's first tasks will be to find a way to separate from this heritage so that he can forge his own path forward.
