San Antonio Spurs Hall of Fame coach Gregg Popovich is not expected to return this season, and the future for the 76-year old is uncertain as he recovers from a mild stroke suffered in November, league sources told ESPN’s Shams Charania.
The latest development provides some closure to what’s turned into a difficult season for San Antonio, which announced Feb. 20 plans to shut down franchise superstar Victor Wembanyama after he was diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis in his right shoulder.
“It is wild to think of the circumstances and the situations that we’ve been through as a team this year,” Spurs point guard Chris Paul said after Wembanyama’s latest medical setback. “But I think you guys know when situations happen in your family, that, somehow, someway brings you closer.”
The NBA’s winningest head coach with 1,390 regular-season victories and another 170 in the postseason with five championships, Popovich suffered, on Nov. 2, what the team called a “mild stroke” ahead of a matchup against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
San Antonio moved assistant Mitch Johnson into the head coaching role that night on an interim basis, and he’s since posted a record of 21-27 in leading the young Spurs.
Popovich, meanwhile, turned 76 in January and potentially leaves the game as the oldest coach in NBA history. He passed the previous record in 2020 held by Hubie Brown, who was 71 when he coached his final game with the Memphis Grizzlies. Popovich, who has coached the Spurs since the 1996-97 season, has the most career wins as a head coach in NBA history.
When the club first named Johnson acting head coach, it did so with plans for Popovich to eventually return. Popovich even released a statement in December thanking the community, the Spurs organization and friends for their outpouring of support.
“No one is more excited to see me return to the bench than the talented individuals who have been leading my rehabilitation process,” Popovich joked in the statement. “They’ve quickly learned that I’m less than coachable.”
Throughout his absence, Popovich, who also serves as the team’s president, has remained in contact with Johnson as well as Spurs players providing support and opinions about gameplans for attacking opponents.
Johnson mentioned in January that Popovich is “giving praise and cussing me out all at the same time.”
Popovich’s closest confidant and architect of most of the franchise’s title teams, Spurs CEO RC Buford said in January the coach was “attacking his rehab.”
“The same resilience he’s shown over the course of our career as a coach, he’s approaching his return in his rehab in an incredibly unique way,” Buford said. “The relationships he’s had with former players and the care they’re sharing with him is amazing, and his improvement continues.”
In addition to his success in the NBA, Popovich shined on the international stage, coaching USA Basketball in 2021 to a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
“It’s not one person to fill Pop’s shoes in this moment,” general manager Brian Wright said 11 days after Popovich’s stroke. “It’s a village. We’ve all bonded together. We’re all playing our roles in that part, and we’ll continue to do that. It’s what he would want.”