The San Antonio Spurs as we all know them do not exist with out coach Gregg Popovich. Tim Duncan is their best participant. George Gervin was their first celebrity. David Robinson saved the franchise. Manu Ginobilii and Tony Parker helped outline one of many best runs sports activities has ever seen. Victor Wembanyama is their face now. Save for Gervin’s taking part in days, all of them exist below Pop’s umbrella.
The 5 NBA championships, his standing because the winningest coach in league historical past, the sustained excellence, his Olympic Gold medal, and his place within the Naismith Basketball Corridor of Fame are why Gregg Popovich enters any dialog of the best coaches ever in sports activities.
In guiding the Spurs to a NBA record-equaling 22 straight playoff appearances that began with Tim Duncan’s rookie season and culminated with a workforce led by DeMar DeRozan and LaMarcus Aldridge, Pop did greater than instill a tradition. He created an existence – an method predicated on selfless beliefs practiced because the Spurs gained on the highest ranges via three a long time.
Congratulations to Spurs legend Gregg Popovich on an illustrious profession 🙌
1,422 common season wins (NBA file)
170 playoff wins (third all-time)
22 consecutive playoff appearances (NBA file)
5x NBA Champion
3x NBA Coach of the 12 months
Olympic Gold Medalist
Basketball Corridor of… pic.twitter.com/ZnErWUokvd— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) Might 2, 2025
Gregg Popovich’s legacy behind the milestones
There’s a framed plaque that lives within the Spurs locker room. “Lives,” the becoming verb as a result of it permeates via the Spurs’ ethos. Attributed to social reformer Jacob Riis, it reads:
“When nothing appears to assist, I am going and take a look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, maybe 100 instances with out as a lot as a crack displaying in it. But on the hundred and first blow it should cut up in two, and I do know it was not that final blow that did it, however all that had gone earlier than.”
It is the inspiration on which the “Spurs approach” sits.
For 25 years, followers in San Antonio waited till subsequent yr. Popovich was there for eight of them as an assistant coach and common supervisor.
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Come 1999, in Popovich’s third season as head coach and Duncan’s second with the workforce, “subsequent yr” grew to become when the Spurs would win their subsequent championship. After 4 titles in eight years (9 seasons), the Silver and Black added one other in 2014. All with Pop.
Whereas Duncan was there your complete time, no different participant was.
In between, as a lot because the Spurs excelled due to Robinson, Ginobili, Parker, and Kawhi Leonard, their success additionally hinged on different items and a team-wide mentality.
Popovich typically mentioned that his greatest stars “acquired over themselves.” If that proved step one, the willingness of these round one of the best gamers to concentrate on particular particulars enabled the Silver and Black to win. And Win. And Win. And win. And win.
The Spurs made one other Finals look and reached the convention championship spherical 4 instances exterior of their 5 titles.
It is success that got here as a result of champions named Mario Elie, Jerome Kerr, and Robert Horry, who’d gained rings elsewhere, purchased in. It is success that got here as a result of veterans named Sean Elliott, Jerome Kersey, Bruce Bowen, Steve Smith, Kevin Willis, Brent Barry, and Michael Finley gave San Antonio a shot. Its success that got here as a result of gamers named Malik Rose, Stephen Jackson, Fabricio Oberto, and Patty Mills excelled in roles.
It is success that each one got here below Gregg Popovich.