San Antonio Spurs just announced that Gregg Popovich will be stepping down as the head coach for the team and will transition to team president. The announcement ends Popovich’s three-decade run with the Spurs that “saw him lead the team to five NBA championships, become the league’s all-time wins leader and earn induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame.”
29 seasons of coaching brilliance pic.twitter.com/tGzy31hC7f
— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) May 2, 2025
According to the NBA official website:
Popovich’s career ends with a record of 1,422-869, which does include the 77 games — 32 wins and 45 losses — that were coached by Johnson this season. He also won 170 playoff games with the Spurs, the most by any coach with any one team and the third-most overall behind only Phil Jackson’s 229 and Pat Riley’s 171.
“The best there ever was,” Spurs great Manu Ginobili said last year of Popovich.
Popovich was a three-time NBA Coach of the Year, led the U.S. to a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics and coached six Hall of Famers in San Antonio — Ginobili, David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Dominique Wilkins and Pau Gasol. He went up against 170 different coaches during his time in the NBA and there have been 303 coaching changes made in the league, including interim moves, during the Popovich era.
Popovich, 76, missed all but five games this season after suffering a stroke at the team’s arena on November 2nd. He hasn’t been seen publicly since, although he expressed hope of returning to coaching before the season’s end
Mitch Johnson will now be the Spurs Head Coach permanently, as he was the acting head coach of the team during Gregg Popovich’s absence.