San Antonio\u2019s Gregg Popovich, the winningest coach in NBA history, announced his retirement from coaching Friday.<\/p>\n
Mitch Johnson, the acting coach for the final 77 games the Spurs played this season, will be the new coach of the team after Popovich announced that he\u2019s transitioning solely into being the team\u2019s president of basketball operations.<\/p>\n
Johnson will be formally introduced on Monday in San Antonio. Popovich finishes with a NBA career coaching record of 1,422 wins and 867 losses, all with the Spurs.<\/p>\n
Some of the key moments of Popovich\u2019s coaching career: <\/p>\n
Dec. 10, 1996: The beginning<\/p>\n
Saying the team needed a change in direction, general manager Gregg Popovich fired coach Bob Hill and named himself coach on the same day that star center David Robinson was returning to the lineup. The Spurs were 3-15 at the time.<\/p>\n
June 25, 1997: Tim Duncan gets drafted<\/p>\n
After winning the draft lottery, the Spurs get the chance to take Tim Duncan No. 1 overall in the 1997 draft. The team immediately becomes a contender, and Popovich and Duncan become joined at the hip for the better part of the next two decades.<\/p>\n
June 25, 1999: Championship No. 1<\/p>\n
Two years to the day after Duncan got drafted, the Spurs beat New York 78-77 to win the NBA Finals in five games.<\/p>\n
June 15, 2003: Championship No. 2<\/p>\n
Popovich wins coach of the year in a season where the Spurs sent David Robinson into retirement as a champion, beating New Jersey in six games for the franchise\u2019s second title.<\/p>\n
June 23, 2005: Championship No. 3<\/p>\n
Tied going into the fourth quarter, the Spurs never trail in the final 12 minutes and Popovich wins his third title. San Antonio beats Detroit 81-74 in Game 7.<\/p>\n
June 14, 2007: Championship No. 4<\/p>\n
Popovich and the Spurs sweep LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, winning the four games by an average of 6.0 points.<\/p>\n
March 16, 2009: Pop reaches 1,000<\/p>\n
In a game at Oklahoma City, Popovich becomes the 24th coach in NBA history to reach the 1,000-game milestone. The only coaches with better records after 1,000 games were Phil Jackson and Pat Riley.<\/p>\n
April 6, 2011: Pop passes Red<\/p>\n
The Spurs beat Sacramento for Popovich\u2019s 797th career win, one that allowed him to pass Boston\u2019s Red Auerbach for the second-most wins with a single team.<\/p>\n
June 15, 2014: Championship No. 5<\/p>\n
Popovich becomes the fifth coach in NBA history with five championships, the Spurs beating Miami 104-87 to win that title in five games.<\/p>\n
Feb. 4, 2017: The most wins with one team<\/p>\n
The Spurs defeat Denver and Popovich gets career win No. 1,128, passing Utah\u2019s Jerry Sloan for the most by a coach with one team.<\/p>\n
Aug. 7, 2021: USA Basketball wins Olympic gold<\/p>\n
Popovich leads the U.S. to its fourth consecutive gold medal in men\u2019s basketball, with the Americans beating France 87-82 at the Tokyo Olympics. \u201cEvery championship is special, and the group you\u2019re with is special, but I can be honest and say this is the most responsibility I\u2019ve ever felt,\u201d Popovich said.<\/p>\n
March 11, 2022: The winningest coach ever<\/p>\n
Popovich becomes the NBA\u2019s all-time coaching win leader, with the Spurs beating Utah 104-102 for the 1,336th victory of his career \u2014 one more than Don Nelson\u2019s previous mark.<\/p>\n
Aug. 12, 2023: Pop enters the Hall<\/p>\n
Popovich, after years of resisting because he wanted more of his former players to be enshrined before him, enters the Basketball Hall of Fame. \u201cIt\u2019s unimaginable,\u201d Popovich said.<\/p>\n
Nov. 2, 2024: Popovich suffers stroke<\/p>\n
Popovich had a stroke at the team\u2019s arena in San Antonio a couple of hours before the game that night against Minnesota. Assistant coach Mitch Johnson took over as acting head coach that night and wound up coaching the team\u2019s final 77 games of the season.<\/p>\n
Feb. 27, 2025: Popovich updates his status<\/p>\n
Popovich released a statement saying Johnson will finish the season. \u201cMitch Johnson and his staff have done a wonderful job and the resolve and professionalism the players have shown, sticking together during a challenging season, has been outstanding,\u201d Popovich said in the statement distributed by the Spurs. \u201cI will continue to focus on my health with the hope that I can return to coaching in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
May 2, 2025: Popovich steps down as coach<\/p>\n
Popovich stepped down as coach of the Spurs. \u201cWhile my love and passion for the game remain, I\u2019ve decided it\u2019s time to step away as head coach. I\u2019m 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,\u201d he said. Later that day, the Spurs promoted Johnson to the head coach role.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Antonio\u2019s Gregg Popovich, the winningest coach in NBA history, announced his retirement from coaching Friday. Mitch Johnson,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,3349,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-6681","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-gregg-popovich","10":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114439669921609474","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6681","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=6681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}