{"id":103815,"date":"2025-06-17T02:45:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T02:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/103815\/"},"modified":"2025-06-17T02:45:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T02:45:10","slug":"spurs-governor-peter-j-holt-on-gregg-popovichs-coaching-influence-and-future-with-mitch-johnson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/103815\/","title":{"rendered":"Spurs governor Peter J. Holt on Gregg Popovich\u2019s coaching influence and future with Mitch Johnson"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO \u2013 In July 2023, Gregg Popovich reportedly inked a five-year contract extension<\/a> to remain head coach of the San Antonio Spurs.<\/p>\n

The deal would net Popovich, who was 74 at the time, $80 million throughout the life of the new contract. It also made Popovich, the NBA\u2019s all-time winningest head coach, the highest-paid. <\/p>\n

In November 2024, 16 months after the contract extension report was made public, Popovich suffered a mild stroke<\/a> before San Antonio hosted the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Frost Bank Center. <\/p>\n

Popovich announced in February that he would not return to coaching in 2024-25 to \u201cfocus\u201d on his health<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Three months later, during Fiesta 2025\u2019s Battle of Flowers Parade<\/a>, the news became official: Popovich was no longer the Spurs\u2019 head coach<\/a>. He is now the team\u2019s president of basketball operations.<\/p>\n

In a wide-ranging interview with KSAT 12\u2019s RJ Marquez, Spurs governor Peter J. Holt reflected on Popovich\u2019s nearly three-decade coaching career and what lies ahead with new head coach Mitch Johnson. <\/p>\n

\u2018A very special individual\u2019<\/p>\n

San Antonio was snakebitten to tip off its 1996-97 season. <\/p>\n

Center David Robinson suffered a back injury and later broke his foot. He played in only six games that season. <\/p>\n

In December 1996, Popovich, then the franchise\u2019s general manager, fired head coach Bob Hill after a 3-15 start to the season. Popovich\u2019s pick to replace Hill? Himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been our family\u2019s only coach,\u201d Peter J. Holt told KSAT. \u201cI mean, it\u2019s crazy to say that.\u201d <\/p>\n

Without the Spurs\u2019 world-class center, Popovich wasn\u2019t an instant box office success. San Antonio lost 47 of its final 64 games in 1996-97.<\/p>\n

However, San Antonio\u2019s fortunes soon changed. The Spurs won the NBA Draft Lottery and later selected the grand prize with the No. 1 overall pick in 1997: Wake Forest big man Tim Duncan.<\/p>\n

As a rookie, Duncan turned the Spurs into a 56-win team. During the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season, Duncan and Robinson led the team to the franchise\u2019s first NBA title. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe world of sports is very fickle, in general, and there\u2019s this desire to have positive, successful, on-court results all the time. And that\u2019s the only determination of success,\u201d Holt said. \u201cI think the way that our organization is rooted in the leaders is (that) that\u2019s not our belief. We don\u2019t believe that it\u2019s binary. We believe that you can do the right thing and have positive impact and serve others in an amazing way and you can win.\u201d <\/p>\n

Popovich\u2019s head coaching career concluded five games into the 2024-25 regular season with 1,390 career wins and three more NBA championships after the dynamic Duncan-Robinson duo claimed titles in 1999 and 2003. <\/p>\n

The longtime coach has also been vocal on political issues, voicing his opposition to the Trump administration, calling on lawmakers to tackle gun violence and advocating for women. <\/p>\n

In 2014, Popovich named former San Antonio Silver Stars point guard Becky Hammon to his coaching staff, making her the first woman to work on an NBA coaching staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s just a very special individual,\u201d Holt said. \u201cI think that it\u2019s rare that there are leaders that have (sic)tremendous ability to build relationships, to build culture, to lead by both voice and example. Also to be fallible. I think that he\u2019s never expressed that, \u2018I\u2019m perfect, and you need to be perfect.\u2019 I think that having someone like Coach Pop(ovich) around that simply believes in showing up each day with the right intentions and putting in the work and then you leave the rest up to the world. Having an environment like that, I think, allows for other great people to thrive.\u201d <\/p>\n

The new man in charge <\/p>\n

For a coach with Popovich\u2019s reputation, several of his assistant coaches were eventually hired as NBA head coaches themselves and attained their own individual success, such as Mike Budenholzer (won an NBA title with the Milwaukee Bucks), Mike Brown (two-time NBA Coach of the Year; coached the Cleveland Cavaliers into the NBA Finals) and Ime Udoka (coached the Boston Celtics into the NBA Finals). <\/p>\n

Holt believes Mitch Johnson is the best man to replace Popovich. Johnson went 32-45 over the final 77 games of the 2024-25 regular season. <\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t have asked for a better pathway of transition,\u201d Holt said. \u201cMitch (Johnson) is just a really special person that has (sic) incredible humility and a learner\u2019s mindset, and also combined with this immense confidence and will. He is the right person for the right job at the right time. I\u2019m thrilled for him, and I\u2019m thrilled for the Spurs to have him be our next coach.\u201d<\/p>\n

More coverage of KSAT\u2019s interview with Spurs governor Peter J. Holt: <\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 In July 2023, Gregg Popovich reportedly inked a five-year contract extension to remain head coach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3797],"tags":[7,6,3383,969,474,4075,4074,534],"class_list":{"0":"post-103815","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio-spurs","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-peter-j-holt","11":"tag-san-antonio","12":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","13":"tag-sanantonio","14":"tag-sanantoniospurs","15":"tag-spurs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114696416364704771","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}