So Long Pops
Edition #242
Gregg Popovich Day.
That’s what January 28th should be, every single year.
The Popovich story began on that date in 1949, in bustling East Chicago, Indiana, home to the Indiana Harbor and the Ship Canal. He was born to a Serbian father and a Croatian mother, graduating from Merrillville High School in 1966.
He then attended the United States Air Force Academy, playing on the academy’s Air Force Falcons basketball team. In his senior year, he even became the team captain, and was the leading scorer that year. He graduated in 1970, and considered a career with the CIA. Looking at Pops right now, I can’t imagine him in the CIA.
Pops then served in the US Air Force. During this time, he continued playing with the US Armed Forces basketball team, in which he was selected captain, winning the AAU championship. He was then invited to the 1972 US Olympic Trials. However, he was cut from team. Who knows what would have happened if he made the team?
Pops began his coaching career as an assistant coach to Hank Egan at the Air Force Academy. During his time as an assistant coach here, he worked and earned his master’s degree in physical education and sports sciences from the University of Denver.
He worked there for 6 years (1973-1979), before heading to Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens in Claremont, California. Basically, an unknown DIII school. According to Popovich, he didn't know that the program sucked. In 1980, he was just another DIII coach trying to figure out how to motivate a group of not-so-talented collegiate athletes at a small school.
“It was a horrendous beginning,” Popovich recalled, “But be that as it may, I still fell in love with it.”
That first year, the Hens lost to Caltech, breaking the Beavers’ 99-game conference losing streak. A couple of the players on that first disastrous Sagehen team had even played high school basketball, but nearly all were cut the following year.
Pomona-Pitzer was the sort of college that had intelligent, scholarly students, but hardly any talented athletes between them. Remember, that these were 2 schools that combined because the schools were so small, so Popovich didn’t know that Pomona-Pitzer didn’t care to actually recruit players, with Pops saying that he didn’t even think it was possible that that would even be a case.
Popovich then did everything in his power to get players to play at Pomona-Pitzer, sending thousands of letters across the country to players that are interested in playing basketball, but wouldn’t get a scholarship at a big school.
“It was a lot more manual labor,” said Charles Katsiaficas, who was Pop’s assistant at the time. “A lot of letter-writing, a lot of sending out mailings, a lot of follow-up phone calls, and you really had to work very hard at generating a recruiting list from which you could even get started.”
Did it work? Kind of. The Sagehens finished 10-15 the year after finishing 2-22 season during Pop’s first season, but only won 3 of 12 conference games that year. They went down after that too, finishing 9-17 the following year.
5 seasons after that 2-22 season, the Sagehens were SCIAC champions. And even though the Nebraska Wesleyan destroyed them in the first round of the NCAA tournament, they just won the conference championship.
Pops was a disciple of Larry Brown at the University of Kansas, and his career officially led him to be a volunteer assistant to learn under Brown. He then went right back and continued coaching at Pomona-Pitzer.
After the 1987-88 season, Popovich officially made his way to the NBA, under Larry Brown’s Spurs, as his top assistant from 1988-1992. That’s when owner Red McCombs fired the entire staff, and Pops navigated his way to the Golden State Warriors under Don Nelson. It was only a 2 year stint, but according to Popovich, it helped him a lot.
In 1994, Popovich returned to San Antonio. This time, as the GM and Vice President of Basketball Operations. He immediately signed Avery Johnson as team’s point guard, and then traded Dennis Rodman to the Chicago Bulls for Will Perdue.
The Spurs didn’t begin the 1996-97 season well, starting 3-15. It was at that point that he fired coach Bob Hill, and named himself head coach on December 10, 1996. That Spurs team had lost all their star players, and led a team with basically just Dominique Wilkins, but he was old.
“It’s part of life — [Popovich] always wanted to be the head coach, I just didn’t recognize it quick enough,” Hill said. “Listen, the last two games they have played against Miami have been just phenomenal. They have kicked Miami’s butt from one baseline to the other baseline, every facet of basketball, they’ve dominated. They’ve done it as a team and that’s a credit to the players.”
Bob Hill on Gregg Popovich
It did the Spurs huge good, though, because you could say that the 96-97 season set the Spurs up for a dynasty, leading them to draft Tim Duncan with the first pick in the 1997 NBA Draft out of Wake Forest University.
Now you have David Robinson and Tim Duncan, and with this combo, they were able to win 56 games in the 97-98 season (Pops first full year as a coach), and the next year, the Spurs won their first NBA title in 1999. The final year of the millennium.
2002 was the year Pops finally gave up the general manager position to R. C. Buford1, who before taking the position, was the team scout. Buford has history with Gregg, because they both began their NBA careers as assistants on Brown’s coaching staff.
One year later, Popovich goes on to win coach of the year and a 2nd title, sending David Robinson into retirement. They beat New Jersey in 6 games. On June 23rd, 2005, the Spurs went ahead and won another title, beating Detroit 81-74 in game 7 of the finals. In 2007, the Spurs went ahead and sweeped LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in their first trip to the NBA Finals. This series was the last NBA Finals sweep until 2018, when the Golden State Warriors sweeped the Cavaliers.
In 2008, in what Popovich says was the most meaningful award earned he’s ever received, Popovich became an official Air Force Distinguished Graduate.
“This is probably the most meaningful of any award I've received or any sort of recognition. Just because this is coming from the AirForceAcademy and I consider this the place that really molded me from a wise guy to a half decent person.”
Gregg Popovich
In 2012, he won his 2nd NBA Coach of the Year award. But, during the 2012-13 season, Popovich was criticized and the main reason for the Spurs being fined $250,000 (or about $350,000 today). Pops knew what he was doing on the load management side of things. For a nationally televised game, Gregg sat his 4 guys. Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginóbili, and Danny Green. He did this because he wanted to make sure they had enough rest for the playoffs, especially because the roster for this Spurs team didn’t just have the soon-to-be the oldest coach, but also the oldest roster in the league.
So, Pops sat his star players and got fined because it was a, "a disservice to the league and the fans".
“Rest was a big thing with him,” Houston Rockets Coach Ime Udoka said. “He was all about the care of his players. He always talks about the best team he had was the one when Tim hurt his knee and sat out the ’99-00 playoffs. Tim wanted to play, but he wouldn’t let him, but that probably extended Tim’s career five years. So, he saw the big picture ahead of everyone else, when it wasn’t en vogue, and took the fines and rolled with it.”
Ironic enough, the 2013 NBA season’s NBA Finals battle was between the Miami Heat and the San Antonio Spurs, and Popovich lost, leading to the Spurs first-ever finals loss. Remember, this is the Heat team that had LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, and Ray Allen.
In 2014, Popovich won his 3rd Coach of the Year award, and was awarded the Red Auerback Trophy. He then went ahead to win his 5th NBA championship, going back to get revenge against the Heat in the Finals.
In 2015, Popovich’s record hunt for the most wins began. He achieved a total of a 1000 wins, joining 9 other who have achieved the same milestone. Only Jerry Sloan and Gregg Popovich have won a 1000 games with the same franchise. He served as the coach for team Africa at the 2015 NBA Africa exhibition game.
During the 2015-16 season, Popovich led the Spurs to their franchise-high 67 wins, but unfortunately, they lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder in the conference championship.
Remember that guy I was talking about? Jerry Sloan? Well, on February 4, 2017, Popovich achieved his 1128th win as a head coach, which passed Jerry Sloan for most with one franchise.
2 years, and almost 300 wins later, Popovich became the winningest head coach in NBA history, notching 1413 wins (regular season and playoffs combined. This happened on April 13, 2019.
On August 7, 2021, it wasn't Steve Kerr or some other coach that led the US to Olympic Gold. It was coach Pops.
“Every championship is special, and the group you’re with is special, but I can be honest and say this is the most responsibility I’ve ever felt.”
Popovich
On March 11, 2022, Popovich began the all-time regular season winningest coach, driving past Don Nelson. He won 1,336, and needed 370 less than Nelson to get to this point.
On August 12, 2023, after years of Gregg Popovich continuously saying that he wanted others to be in before him, entered the basketball Hall of Fame. This is humble and modest, like Popovich is.
On November 2, 2024, Popovich suffered a stroke. This would be the final game he coached, and it would be against Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves. The reason for this is because on May 2nd, 2022, the legend in Gregg Popovich stepped down as a coach after 29 seasons.
Pops has always been more than a coach. It doesn’t matter who you’re talking to. They’ll all say the same thing. Everyone has some sort of stories with him.
Shaquille O’Neal has had a relationship with Coach Pops since his childhood.
"We know that we would be facing a team that was well-disciplined. We used to call it 'The Program.'"
"I love that man for a different reason, growing up in San Antonio. Mom and dad didn't have a lot of money for shoes, so somebody told my father that somebody on the Spurs wore size 22.
"My father reached out to the Spurs, and Pop being military, dad being military, they hit it off. Pop gave us a couple pairs of shoes. He never wanted anything [in return],
"I always had an admiration and respect for him. Like you said, legendary career but a better man. I'm sad we're not going to be seeing him on the court."
Shaquille O’Neal
Head coaches like Ime Udoka also had kind words for him.
"I had interviewed for three or four years and missed a few opportunities that were close. So I call him on FaceTime and say, 'Boston offered me the job,' and he's on the treadmill walking when he gets choked up. You see him looking, and he starts crying, and he had to hang up. He was like, 'I'll call you back.' He broke down. His voice is cracking. And he hung up."
Ime Udoka
Steve Kerr had quite the bit to say about Pops, which is absolutely for a reason. We all know that Popovich has had a lot of impact on Steve Kerr throughout his career, and Kerr had consistently talked about him and Gregg.
"I just want to say thank you to Pop and to the Spurs organization for everything they've meant to me and my career. I know this is a pretty emotional day for the Spurs. It is for the entire NBA. The number of people Pop has influenced. The number of coaches in his coaching tree, it's just incredible. But Pop is one of the most important people in my life for many, many reasons, and most of them go way beyond basketball.
"It's a sad day and it's also an encouraging day, I think because this is a natural transition for him organizationally to move in to his next role. I think it also gives him the space and the time he needs to recover from the health issues. So I've got a lot of mixed emotions today, mainly just my love for Pop, my empathy for him for what he's gone through for the Spurs organization. All of the above, and it's still a very emotional day for everybody involved."
"I think Pop transformed coaching over the last 20 years. I think it went from one era to the next with several coaches leading the way. I think Phil Jackson and Pop, and I know I'm biased for both of them, but each of them in their own way transformed the coaching profession into more than just X's and O's authoritarian figure to culture and collaboration and the unique chemistry great teams have. Those two guys, in my mind, helped create the current culture we're in."
"He probably was one of the first coaches in the modern generation to really speak out on politics and social injustices.”
"I think Pop is in that Dean Smith mode of seeing the bigger picture beyond sports, and those are the coaches who really stand out to me, the guys who -- and Phil, I immediately think of Phil in that regard -- who recognize the importance of sports and yet the relative unimportance and find that balance and that perspective and make an impact societally. And that's what Pop is."
Steve Kerr
We all know how blunt and direct Pops is when he’s on the court. He held his players accountable, and pushed them to their limits. The way he treated everyone the same stuck with many. This quote by Mensah-Bonsu was pretty funny (if you read it right).
“I was playing in a game, and I messed up a defensive assignment,” Mensah-Bonsu said. “He takes me out of the game, yells at me and sends me to the end of the bench. …The next quarter, Tim Duncan literally makes the same mistake. I was assuming that Pop would just leave him in. But he subs him out and yells at Tim Duncan the exact same way and sends him to the bench right next to me.
“Timmy’s response summed up their relationship and how the Spurs have been successful for so many years. He looked at him and said, ‘You’re right, Coach,’ and sat right down next to me on the bench. That summed up my whole experience in San Antonio.”
Steve Kerr, who played under Gregg Popovich, was taken out of the rotation. He was “pissed”. He protested, alright, sitting on the floor instead of the bench. Pops saw what Kerr was doing, and approached him after a couple of games.
“Hey, you are not that guy. One of the reasons we signed you is because we know who you are, and what you can mean to the fabric of the team with your work ethic and energy. This goes against who you are. It’s not who you are. I understand you are pissed about not being in the rotation, but you can’t do that,” said Popovich.
According to Kerr, he was humbled.
Personally, I love coach Pops. If I was in the NBA, I’d do anything to get under his leadership. Just like Steve Kerr said, I say, “What he’s done to the game, is going to have massive ripples in the future.” There is going to be someone who does exactly what coach Pops does and gets his team on a successful track.
When I first learned about basketball, more than focusing on my favorite player, I saw Pops. I saw him yelling. I saw his postgame conference. I was in awe. Pops was my vision of the NBA, just like he was for so many people.
He’s not out of the NBA yet, just off the court and the sideline, signaling the end of his 29 year head-coaching reign for the San Antonio Spurs. He’s going to be the Spurs President of Basketball Operations, and he’s going to do what he does, and continue the Pops way.
I didn’t expect to publish this article so soon. Probably in 2028, after his contract with the Spurs ended. It’s crazy to see a career end like this, but Pops deserves this. Forever.
Because
That’s
The
Coach
Pops
Way.
Buford is currently the CEO of the San Antonio Spurs as of the 2019-20 season. He was an assistant coach for Kansas, the Spurs, Clippers, and Florida. He went to Texas A&M.