Gregg Popovich, the NBA's all-time wins leader, retires after 29 seasons as coach in San Antonio

Gregg Popovich stepped down arsenic manager of the San Antonio Spurs connected Friday, ending a three-decade tally that saw him pb the squad to 5 NBA championships, go the league's all-time wins person and gain induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

"While my emotion and passionateness for the crippled remain, I've decided it's clip to measurement distant arsenic caput coach," Popovich said.

He volition stay arsenic squad president. Mitch Johnson, a Spurs adjunct who filled successful for Popovich for the season's last 77 games, becomes the team's caput coach.

Popovich, 76, missed each but 5 games this play aft having a changeable astatine the team's arena connected Nov. 2. He has not spoken publically since, though had addressed his squad astatine slightest erstwhile and released a connection successful precocious March saying that helium hoped to instrumentality to coaching.

That won't beryllium happening.

"I'm everlastingly grateful to the fantastic players, coaches, unit and fans who allowed maine to service them arsenic the Spurs caput manager and americium excited for the accidental to proceed to enactment the organization, assemblage and metropolis that are truthful meaningful to me," Popovich said.

Popovich's vocation ends with a grounds of 1,422-869, which does see the 77 games — 32 wins and 45 losses — that were coached by Johnson this season. He besides won 170 playoff games with the Spurs, the astir by immoderate manager with immoderate 1 squad and the third-most wide down lone Phil Jackson's 229 and Pat Riley's 171.

"The champion determination ever was," Spurs large Manu Ginobili said past twelvemonth of Popovich.

NBA and Olympic champion

Popovich was a three-time manager of the year, led the U.S. to a golden medal astatine the Tokyo Olympics and coached six Hall of Famers successful San Antonio — Ginobili, David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Dominique Wilkins and Pau Gasol. He went up against 170 antithetic coaches during his clip successful the NBA and determination person been 303 coaching changes made successful the league, including interim moves, during the Popovich era.

"I've got a video connected my telephone that's, like, priceless," said Chris Paul, who played for the Spurs this past play — going there, successful ample part, due to the fact that of the lure of playing for Popovich. "It was america successful Oklahoma City, earlier shootaround, and Pop is doing ballhandling stuff. All these years I've ever seen Pop coaching successful a suit, but I didn't cognize however hard of a idiosyncratic helium was erstwhile it comes to training."

Popovich, successful his relation arsenic wide manager of the Spurs, made the determination to occurrence manager Bob Hill and beforehand himself into that occupation connected Dec. 10, 1996. The timing seemed, astatine best, awkward. The Spurs were 3-15 astatine that point, having played each 18 of those games without Robinson, who was conscionable astir to travel backmost from injury. Popovich took implicit connected the time that Robinson returned to the lineup.

"A alteration successful absorption was necessary," Popovich said that day.

The Spurs hadn't changed absorption again since.

"Coach Pop's bonzer interaction connected our family, San Antonio, the Spurs and the crippled of hoops is profound," Spurs managing spouse Peter J. Holt said. "His accolades and awards don't bash justness to the interaction helium has had connected truthful galore people. He is genuinely one-of-one arsenic a person, person and coach. Our full family, alongside fans from crossed the globe, are grateful for his singular 29-year tally arsenic the caput manager of the San Antonio Spurs."

The fortunes changed — Duncan was picked No. 1 wide successful the 1997 draught — but the absorption nether Popovich ever stayed the same. The archetypal title came successful 1999; others followed successful 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014. In his archetypal 22 seasons arsenic caput coach, the Spurs had 22 winning records, the archetypal 20 of those seasons winning astatine slightest 60% of the time.

His determination to measurement distant present comes with the Spurs having conscionable completed the 2nd twelvemonth of a rebuild astir French prima Victor Wembanyama, who arrived touted arsenic the adjacent San Antonio large and has done thing to suggest helium won't unrecorded up to that billing.

How helium started

Popovich played astatine the U.S. Air Force Academy, famously wasn't picked successful a bid to marque the 1972 U.S. Olympic squad — immoderate inactive accidental helium merited a spot connected that squad — and coiled up becoming a manager who mightiness person been perfectly contented to tally Pomona-Pitzer, a Division III programme successful California, for the entirety of his nonrecreational life. That schoolhouse had mislaid 88 consecutive league games erstwhile helium arrived; it didn't instrumentality agelong for Popovich to present a league championship.

Eventually, the NBA called. In time, Popovich would beryllium paired with Robinson, past the patriarch of a dynasty fueled by Duncan, Parker and Ginobili. And retired of that, Popovich enactment unneurotic a vocation similar nary other.

"Everyone knows the astonishing occupation he's done and each the accomplishments," longtime manager Larry Brown said successful 2021. "I privation much radical truly could cognize the benignant of idiosyncratic that helium is."

He was famously grumpy, liked to clash with reporters, seldom offered immoderate details of his hoops oregon backstage beingness different than what was necessary. It was simultaneously existent and an act; Popovich has a overmuch softer broadside arsenic good — helium softly championed causes similar the San Antonio Food Bank for years and wasn't acrophobic to marque his governmental views known. And those fortunate capable to cognize him find him hilarious.

"He has an astonishing consciousness of humour," Boston guardant Jayson Tatum said portion playing for Popovich during the Tokyo Olympics 4 years ago. "I conjecture the casual instrumentality sees the idiosyncratic who does those interviews postgame, but that's not the lawsuit of who helium is astatine all. I perfectly emotion spending clip with him."

A nonaccomplishment successful the 2013 NBA Finals crushed Popovich, whose Spurs were successful presumption to adjacent retired the Miami Heat successful six games, mislaid Game 6 successful overtime aft Ray Allen's 3-pointer with 5.2 seconds remaining successful regularisation kept the Heat alive, past fell successful Game 7. But successful the moments aft the last horn, arsenic Miami manager Erik Spoelstra embraced his staff, Popovich joined the hug with a wide smile.

Popovich's was a tenure similar fewer others. Popovich coached the Spurs for 29 seasons, a span astir unmatched successful U.S. large pro sports history. Connie Mack managed the Philadelphia Athletics for 50 years, George Halas coached the Chicago Bears for 40 years and John McGraw managed the New York Giants for 31 years. Those 3 tenures — each wrapping up good implicit a half-century agone — are the lone ones exceeding the magnitude of Popovich's coaching tally with the Spurs; his 29-year epoch successful San Antonio was matched by the Dallas Cowboys' Tom Landry and the Green Bay Packers' Curly Lambeau.

"It means I'm old," Popovich said past year.

Popovich broke a sex obstruction of sorts successful the league erstwhile helium hired Becky Hammon arsenic the league's archetypal pistillate full-time paid adjunct coach. Hammon, present manager of the WNBA's Las Vegas Aces, would besides go the archetypal pistillate caput summertime league manager successful the NBA and archetypal pistillate acting caput manager erstwhile she replaced Popovich for a crippled successful 2020.

Popovich spoke astir vino whenever helium could and offered his views connected authorities and existent events but seldom offered overmuch penetration into coaching decisions oregon unit matters. It was astir military-like secrecy, which made consciousness fixed that Popovich was a postgraduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy and was an adept on, among different things, the emergence and autumn of the Soviet Union.

His emotion of state led to him taking a tiny broadside occupation during his San Antonio tenure — that being coaching USA Basketball for the 2019 World Cup and the Tokyo Olympics 2 years later. His World Cup squad finished seventh, the worst placing ever for a U.S. squad with NBA players. His Olympic squad won gold.

"It's intolerable to abstracted it if you person been successful the military," Popovich said erstwhile asked astir the parallels of being astatine the Air Force Academy and coaching the country's nationalist team. "I've had classmates that person fought successful wars — I person not — and immoderate of them are nary longer with us. You get an appreciation for radical who person sacrificed. So, erstwhile you person an accidental to bash this for your country, it's intolerable to accidental no. I emotion being portion of it."