On Friday, the San Antonio Spurs announced that Greg Popovich will no longer be coaching the team and is moving into a full-time role as president of basketball operations.
Popovich, 76, will finish his coaching tenure with leadership in 1,422 regular season wins in his league career, winning three Coach of the Year awards with five championships and NBA records. Popovich joined acting director Mitch Johnson after suffering mild strokes in November, and is currently set to take over his coaching duties permanently.
We asked the NBA Insiders a big question following the decisions of the Spurs and Popovich. This asked how this turned out, what the next for the franchise, what San Antonio brings to the role Johnson brings to open competing windows when the newly aged rookie leads when the rookie stepped on the neck.
1. How did Spurs and Pop come to this decision?
The Spurs were determined to have obtained the right to decide when Popovich would leave. Popovich asserted that he would only return if he felt he could physically do his job. He still has a desire to coach and says he has felt he has been energized in recent years by working with young players he wants to learn.
However, ultimately, Popovich decided that he needed to move into a supportive role with Johnson.
– Ramona Shelburn
2. What do people around the league say about pop moves?
There is relief and clarity. Popovich has definitely been coaching for the past few months, so his announcement that he hasn’t returned during the season has said nothing about his future. However, he was an NBA royal family and there were concerns about the health of the legendary coach. After a recent incident that required a trip to the hospital, there was even more concern about Popovich’s well-being.
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The Spurs are left in a great place by Popovich. He won five titles on the sidelines, but it’s fair to say that one of his biggest achievements left the position with a clean contingency plan.
“He has suffered a lot of losses over the past few years and didn’t have to take it. It’s been a very selfish act,” a veteran league executive told ESPN. “The team is set for success. Unfortunately, he doesn’t stand by the sidelines, but the next generation of teams have fingerprints.”
In addition to taking the most difficult steps in rebuilding the last year of work, Popovich helped create and maintain the well-known culture. Over the years, many organizations have tried to replicate it by storming Popovich’s front office and coaching staff. That culture continues ever since he left his position.
He also helped Johnson train him in his replacement as he steadily gained more responsibility in his time on the bench. Even before Johnson was nominated for acting head coach, it was not uncommon for Popovich to have him create a late game strategy with the huddle. Over the years there were many assistants who were considered undefined “head coach waits” in San Antonio. That’s because Popovich believed in developing the kind of assistants that would develop young players by developing young players, identifying them, and developing people he felt he had a high chance.
If this job was open and it wasn’t because the Spurs handled all their business neatly and quietly, it would have been considered one of the best in the league. As soon as Popovich resigned as coach but remained as president, the league knew that Johnson was very likely to be the pick. There can be problems with NBA families keeping things up. In San Antonio, it’s a secret sauce.
Popovich has always appreciated it and protected it. And the league knows he’s taking over it.
– Brian Windholst
3. Who is Mitch Johnson and why did the Spurs give him a long-term job?
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Stephen A. responds to Greg Popovich resigning as Spurs head coach
Stephen A. Smith details why Greg Popovich is happy to be in basketball as the Spurs team president.
DeJoan Murray, Pelicans point guard in New Orleans, has told ESPN multiple times that Johnson saved his life as a teenager by bailing out of prison and placing him in a strict academic and basketball program that helps him enroll in the now 28-year-old college and the NBA. So, when the Spurs began judging Murray during the draft process (2016), Johnson quickly attracted the organization’s attention to coaching and communication insights, bringing him along as an assistant to the club’s G-League affiliate Austin Spurs.
“One of the things we said when he came and kicked me out of the boy when I was 15 was, ‘We’re together,'” Murray told Johnson’s ESPN. “We seem to be trying to put all this terrible job in and we are going to see where the job goes, so even when we entered the league, we never knew what all of this was going to happen, or how things would happen.
Johnson has moved the organization quickly, spending the past six seasons as an assistant under Popovich, including five years at the frontline of the bench after the 2020 promotion.
Mitch Johnson, son of former NBA All-Star and 1979 champion John “JJ” Johnson, was a skilled player in high school (averaged 22 points and eight assists as seniors in the two state championships at Odea High School in Seattle, serving as college at Stanford University. Brooke Lopez told ESPN he was called “Maestro” with Johnson in college and “the way he conducts and operates shows.”
“It’s not a shock to see him in his current position. He belongs there,” added Lopez. “[He’s] Such an intelligent basketball player, the highest basketball IQ I’ve ever played or played. ”
Greg Popovich resigns
Greg Popovich has resigned as head coach of the San Antonio Spurs. There’s everything you need to know about his legendary career.
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Within the Spurs organization, Johnson was impressed with Popovich, Spurs CEO RC Bufford and GM Brian Wright for how he sailed through a turbulent season due to Popovich’s stroke and shoulder thrombosis issues on the club’s shelf. Johnson’s leadership did not waver at a disadvantage during a week’s trip to New York and Paris, let alone Los Angeles, during the wildfires. Johnson held the players accountable.
His words always resonated in the locker room. The San Antonio players have consistently competed with Johnson, and were not noticed by franchise decision makers.
“I trust the organization,” Wembanyama said. “I also trust Mitch will grow into that role. I think we have a good hand in supporting each other across the organization.”
– Michael C. Wright
4. What does the offseason look like in San Antonio?
Being clear about the head coach was a top priority on Spurs to-do list.
The focus is now on the lottery. The Spurs have their own first round pick, as well as their first pick from Atlanta. (San Antonio is 6% likely to move from No. 8 to the top spot, while Atlanta is 0.7%.) As for the roster, 10 players have signed contracts, led by rookies for the year in Victor Wenbañarah and Steffen Castle.
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San Antonio is still in a position to do another big swing in the Fox trade if players like Kevin Durant and Giannis Antetocompo become available this summer. The Spurs will trade for Atlanta next year and reserve the right to a 2027 unprotected first-round pick for the Hawks. In total, there are six firsts in the next eight years, several years of pix swaps and 17 seconds. They also have quite a few contracts for Devin Vassell, Harrison Barnes and Keldon Johnson.
The date for circles in the Spurs calendar is August 3rd. This is the first day Fox can sign the largest extension of $229 million over four years. And look at Chris Paul’s future. After signing a one-year contract last year in the offseason, Paul will play all 82 games for the second time in his career and will be joining a free agency.
– Bobby Marks
5. What are your expectations for San Antonio next season?
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Can Giannis work with Wenby? Windy lays out the scenario
Brian Windhorst explains how the luck of the Spurs and Rocket lottery can increase the chances of landing Giannis Antetocompo.
The 2026 postseason is a reasonable expectation, and reaching the playoffs could be a disappointment. The Spurs this season were 21-25 in 46 games played by Wenbanyama, only five of which were sidelined with San Antonio’s blockbuster midseason trade alongside the Fox and Wenbanyama with deep venous thrombosis.
The development of slow-playing Wenbanyama allowed the Spurs to add Castle in June last year with a fourth-place pick and another lottery pick this year, but with the arrival of Fox and future picks, San Antonio stockpiled it. Now is the time for young players to experience a high-intensity game.
Only Kobe Bryant, Luka Doncic, Dwight Howard and Lebron James were voted for the All-NBA before the age of 21.5. Wenbañama was on track to achieve it before he had not reached the 65-game minimum due to his absence. All of these players made their playoff debuts in their third season in the league. Howard and James have made it through their third year.
The Spurs’ biggest obstacle to making the playoffs is the loaded Western Conference, where playoff teams have never won games this season of less than 48 games. There are no obvious candidates to drop out of the playoffs, but the same was true last season, but the Houston Rockets and Memphis Grizzlies managed to break into the top eight.
At the very least, San Antonio should be able to crack a play-in tournament for the first time since 2022. The Spurs would have had the opportunity to claim to be the 10th seed this season if Wenbanyama had stayed healthy. But the goal is to reach the western top six in 2019, when San Antonio last went. Surprisingly, it’s after the Charlotte Hornets, the NBA’s second-longest active playoff drought.
– Kevin Pelton
