It’s the end of an era in San Antonio, as the Spurs announced on Friday that head coach Gregg Popovich is transitioning to become the President of Basketball Operations after 29 seasons as their head coach.
Across those 29 years, Popovich established himself as one of the best coaches in NBA history, if not the single greatest. And with that, here’s his coaching career by the numbers — with historical context on his Spurs stint.
Pop’s career by the numbers
1: Popovich is first among NBA coaches in regular-season wins, credited with 1,422 career victories.
2: The Spurs had the NBA Rookie of the Year twice with Popovich as head coach: Tim Duncan in 1998 and Victor Wembanyama in 2024. Both players were the No. 1 pick in their respective NBA drafts.
3A: Popovich is third among NBA coaches in postseason wins, credited with 170 career victories, and earned NBA Coach of the Year honors in three seasons. His 29 seasons as San Antonio’s head coach also makes Popovich third in league history for total seasons as an NBA head coach.
3B: LeBron James and Kevin Durant changed teams three times apiece over Popovich’s 29 seasons in command of the Spurs. Popovich and the Spurs went 2-1 in the NBA Finals against teams with James.
3C: Three NBA teams changed their home city over the past 29 seasons, with the Seattle SuperSonics becoming the Oklahoma City Thunder, the New Jersey Nets becoming the Brooklyn Nets and the Golden State Warriors moving from Oakland to San Francisco. To boot, Oakland lost all three of its professional sports teams over that span (Warriors, Raiders and Athletics).
5: The Spurs won five NBA championships with Popovich as their head coach: 1999, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014. Those five titles also tied him with Pat Riley and John Kundla for third in NBA history.
6: Popovich coached six future Hall of Famers on the Spurs: Tim Duncan, David Robinson, Dominique Wilkins, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Pau Gasol. The No. 6 also represents the number of times that the Spurs won the Western Conference under Popovich, which is tied with Steve Kerr and Erik Spoelstra for the third most conference titles in league history.
10: Popovich played college basketball at Air Force before becoming an assistant coach for the team. He played and coached a combined 10 seasons for the Falcons.
22: Of Popovich’s 29 seasons as head coach, the Spurs posted 22 winning seasons.
33: While he was their head coach for 29 seasons, Popovich was part of the Spurs coaching staff for a combined 33 seasons, serving as an assistant coach under Larry Brown for three-plus seasons and Bob Bass for one season; Brown was fired during the 1991-92 NBA season. Popovich was an assistant coach for the Warriors for the next two seasons before being hired as general manager by the Spurs in 1994. Popovich then hired himself as head coach following a 3-15 start to the 1996-97 season.
50: San Antonio posted 50-plus wins in 19 seasons under Popovich.
60: San Antonio posted 60-plus wins in six seasons under Popovich.
2020: Popovich was the head coach for Team USA in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, with the team taking home the gold medal. The 2020 Tokyo Olympics took place in the summer of 2021 due to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Popovich was also an assistant coach for Team USA at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
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