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After nearly 30 years as head coach of the San Antonio Spurs, Gregg Popovich has stepped dowce. In a meeting with players in February, Popovich would announce that he would not coach the team for the remainder of the season. On May 2nd, Popovich would officially step down as Spurs head coach and transition to the team’s President of Basketball Operations. Mitch Johnson also officially become Pop’s successor as Spurs head coach.
Popovich’s impact and legacy in the NBA cannot be understated. He would first join the Spurs in 1988, becoming the lead assistant coach for then head coach Larry Brown. He would remain with the team until 1992, before joining the Golden State Warriors as the lead assistant under Don Nelson from 1992-1994.
Pop would return to the Spurs in 1994 as general manager and vice president of basketball operations before taking over as head coach early in the 1996-97 season. Over the next 29 seasons, Popovich would turn the Spurs into one of the most respected franchises in all of sports. In his 29 seasons as head coach (the longest tenure for a coach in NBA history), Pop would coach the Spurs to 18 consecutive 50+ win seasons, six finals appearances, and five NBA championships.
Popovich holds the record for most regular season wins by an NBA coach with 1,422 wins. The second-place spot is held by Don Nelson, with 1,335 wins. He would also be named Coach of the Year on three separate occasions. Pop’s coaching run will also be remembered for his numerous antics such as messing with interviewers.
Outside of San Antonio, Pop’s legacy and impact can be felt through his coaching tree, with numerous coaches, assistants, and more in the NBA and other leagues as well. Notable coaches from Pop’s coaching tree include Mike Budenholzer, Mike Brown, Brett Brown, Ime Udoka, Will Hardy, Jacque Vaughn, Steve Kerr, and now Mitch Johnson. As of May 7, 2025, four active NBA coaches came from Pop’s coaching tree with another two coaches having coaching roles during the 2024-25 season.
Another notable coach from Pop’s coaching is Las Vegas Aces head coach Becky Hammon. Hammon would spend seven seasons with the Spurs as an assistant and would become the first female acting head coach in NBA history when Pop would be ejected during a December 2020 game. She would become the WNBA Las Vegas Aces head coach and lead the Aces to back-to-back WNBA championships in 2022 and 2023.
For new Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson, he has been a part of Pop’s coaching tree for nearly a decade. He would start as an assistant coach with the G-League Austin Spurs in 2016 before moving up to the San Antonio Spurs in 2019 as an assistant, replacing Spurs legend Tim Duncan. Johnson would coach his first game in May 2021 and would be interim coach again in for a game in 2023 before becoming interim head coach in November 2024. Johnson now becomes the third youngest active NBA coach at 38 years old, with 36-year-old Will Hardy and 36-year-old Joe Mazzulla being the only younger coaches.
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