Popovich has spent 30-plus years with the franchise, including 28-plus consecutive seasons as head coach, and helped turn the Spurs into a model team that others tried to emulate.
Popovich has not coached a game since the Spurs beat Utah on Oct. 31. The Spurs later announced he suffered a stroke on Nov. 2, and the 76-year-old did not return to the sideline as the team finished with a 34-48 record under interim coach Mitch Johnson.
‘While my love and passion for the game remain, I’ve decided it’s time to step away as head coach,” Popovich said in a statement. “I’m forever grateful to the wonderful players, coaches, staff and fans who allowed me to serve them as the Spurs head coach and am excited for the opportunity to continue to support the organization, community and city that are so meaningful to me.”
Popovich spent 28-plus seasons with the Spurs as head coach, taking over for Bob Hill in 1996. The Spurs finished 17-47 and won the draft lottery. They selected Tim Duncan with the No. 1 overall pick, pairing him with David Robinson and setting a course for NBA titles in 1999, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014.
The hallmark of Popovich’s championship-caliber teams included quality defense, crisp offense reliant on two of the game’s all-time great big men and supreme roster building, which included drafting Tony Parker with the No. 28 pick in the 2001 draft and Manu Ginobili with the 57th pick in the second round of the 1999 draft. Drafting Kawhi Leonard with the No. 15 pick in 2011 helped the Spurs to the title in 2014.
Popovich, who also served as the franchise’s president of basketball operations, earned NBA Coach of the Year three times (2003, 2012, 2014) and is one of five coaches to win at least five NBA championships. He was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in in 2023. His 1,422 regular season wins are the most in NBA history and he also coached the U.S. to a gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Born in East Chicago, Indiana in 1949, Popovich played basketball at Air Force and graduated with a degree in Soviet studies in 1970. In his senior season at Air Force, he averaged 14.3 points and was team captain. He served his five-year military commitment touring Eastern Europe, including the Soviet Union, as a member of the U.S. Armed Forces basketball team.
Popovich returned to the Air Force in 1973, coaching Air Force Academy Prep School and then serving as an assistant coach for the Air Force. He became the head coach at Pomona-Pitzer College in 1979 and left for the NBA in 1988, joining Larry Brown’s Spurs staff as an assistant from 1988-1992 and then becoming an assistant for Don Nelson with the Golden State Warriors in 1992.
He was named the Spurs’ general manager and vice president of basketball operations in 1994.