his decision to step down from the role<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cThat\u2019s a lot of thank yous after 25 to 30 years,\u201d Popovich said. \u201cI can never express the gratitude that I have for so many people caring for our organization and sending me thoughts and prayers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSince I\u2019ve had this stroke, things are getting better by the day, but it\u2019s not good enough for what we plan ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watch the full speech in the video player above.<\/p>\n
On Friday, the Spurs announced that Johnson, who served as interim coach, would become the team\u2019s head coach \u2014 a decision that Popovich supports.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to have someone in charge who is fully capable of giving their very best,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMitch Johnson will be the guy that forges our future, and I\u2019ll do everything I can to help him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Popovich will continue his work with the Spurs organization as the team\u2019s president of basketball operations, a new role that he embraced with a custom-made T-shirt.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m no longer a coach, I\u2019m El Jefe,\u201d Popovich said as he revealed his shirt that read \u201cSe\u00f1or Popovich President of Basketball Ops\u201d on the back.<\/p>\n
The winningest coach in NBA history was joined at the podium by Spurs greats Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili in the address that welcomed a new chapter for the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe won\u2019t win every game, we\u2019ll try to, but we will do it with class,\u201d Popovich said. <\/p>\n
More Popovich coverage:<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 San Antonio Spurs\u2019 Gregg Popovich addressed the media on Monday after organization appointed Mitch Johnson…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3797],"tags":[7,3349,3361,6,969,474,4075,4074,534],"class_list":{"0":"post-15290","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-gregg-popovich","10":"tag-mitch-johnson","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-san-antonio","13":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","14":"tag-sanantonio","15":"tag-sanantoniospurs","16":"tag-spurs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114465052180954967","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15290","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=15290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}