Gregg Popovich

At 75 years old, Gregg Popovich has this physical status:

Gregg Charles Popovich (born January 28, 1949) is an American professional basketball coach and general manager.

He is the head coach and president of the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association (NBA), as well as the head coach of the USA national team.

Popovich took over as head coach of the Spurs in 1996, becoming the longest serving active coach in both the NBA and all major sports leagues in the United States.

He is often referred to as "Coach Pop" or simply "Pop." "Popovich has the most wins in NBA history (regular season and playoffs), overtaking Lenny Wilkens and Don Nelson on April 13, 2019.

In each of his 22 full seasons as head coach, he has led the Spurs to a winning streak in NBA history, beating Phil Jackson for the most consecutive seasons in NBA history.

The Spurs have had a winning record against every other NBA team during his tenure.

Popovich has coached the Spurs to all five of their NBA titles and has been one of the few NBA coaches to win five titles in history.

Early life and education

Popovich was born in East Chicago, Indiana, on January 28, 1949, to a Serbian father and Croatian mother. Popovich attended the United States Air Force Academy after graduating from Merrillville High School in 1966. In his senior year, he was the team's captain and leading scorer, while his junior year was on the academy's Air Force Falcons men's basketball team. He graduated from the Academy of Sciences in 1970 with a bachelor's degree in Soviet studies. Popovich underwent Air Force intelligence training and briefly considered a career with the Central Intelligence Agency.

Popovich spent five years in the United States Air Force during which he toured Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union with the United States Armed Forces Basketball Team. He was chosen captain of the Armed Forces Team in 1972, which won the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) championship. The 6-foot-2-inch (1.88 m) guard received an invitation to the 1972 US Olympic Basketball Team trials.

Personal life

Popovich was married to Erin Popovich until her death on April 18, 2018; the couple had two children. He is a passionate wine collector and an investor in Oregon's A to Z Wineworks.

Popovich has spoken out on behalf of social justice causes, including in favor of the 2017 Women's March. Former US President Donald Trump's behavior was also criticized consistently by him. In the 2020 presidential race, Popovich supported Joe Biden.

Popovich has worked with many charities and charities, including the San Antonio Food Bank and the Innocence Project, to varying degrees. In addition, he was a participant in Shoes That Fit, a charity that aims to bring shoes to more than 200 students at Gates Elementary School, which has been impacted by Hurricanes Irma and Maria. Popovich is assisting in raising funds for J/P HRO, a Haiti disaster relief service, and several disaster relief groups in the United States and Caribbean.

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Coaching career

Popovich served as an assistant coach under the school's head basketball coach Hank Egan in 1973. Egan later became an assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs under Popovich. Popovich earned a master's degree in physical education and sports sciences at the University of Denver during his time as an assistant coach at the Academy.

Popovich was appointed head coach of the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens, the combined men's basketball team of Pomona College and Pitzer College in Claremont, California, in 1979. Popovich coached the Pomona-Pitzer men's basketball team from 1979 to 1988, leading the team to its first outright title in 68 years.

During his time as head coach at Pomona-Pitzer, Popovich became a pupil and later a close friend of head coach Larry Brown at the University of Kansas. Popovich left Pomona-Pitzer to work as a volunteer assistant at Kansas, where he could study directly under Brown. Popovich reconnected to Pomona-Pitzer and assumed his roles as head coach the next season.

Popovich joined Brown as the Spurs' lead assistant coach following the 1987-88 season. Popovich, Brown's top assistant, was fired by owner Red McCombs from 1988 to 1992. Popovich spent a brief time in 1992 with the Golden State Warriors as an assistant under future Hall of Famer Don Nelson and carrying Avery Johnson, who had been cut by the Spurs, with him.

After Peter Holt purchased the team in 1994, Popovich returned to San Antonio as the general manager and vice president of basketball operations. Popovich's first move was to sign Avery Johnson as the team's starting point guard. Dennis Rodman's trade to the Chicago Bulls in Will Perpete was another one of Popovich's early moves in San Antonio. Rodman was not a fan of Popovich, as Rodman wrote in his first book, Bad As I Want To Be.

Popovich fired coach Bob Hill on December 10, 1996 and named himself head coach after the Spurs had a 3–15 record in the 1996–97 season, with David Robinson sidelined due to a preseason back injury. Robinson then broke his foot after only six games and was suspended for the season. Sean Elliott was also limited to 39 games due to illness, and Chuck Person was off the track for the entire season. With a reduced roster that included an aging Dominique Wilkins, the Spurs lost only 17 games for the remainder of the season, defeating a new record of 20–62. The Spurs made the first overall pick in the 1997 NBA draft, which they used to draft Tim Duncan out of Wake Forest University due to the Spurs' bad season.

Duncan, 6'11" Duncan, teamed up with the 7'1" Robinson in a "Twin Tower" offense and defense for many years, and the Spurs flourished. The Spurs won 56 games between 1997–1998 (Popovich's first full year as coach), winning their first NBA title in 1999.

Popovich resigned as general manager to R. C. Buford, who had been working as the team's head scout, in 2002. Both Popovich and Buford were introduced to the NBA in 1988 as assistants on Brown's coaching staff.

Popovich has won five titles with the Spurs: 1999, 2003, 2005, 2006, and 2014. In 2003, 2012, and 2014, he was named NBA Coach of the Year.

Popovich returned to the United States Air Force Academy on April 4, 2008 to receive the academy's Distinguished Graduate award. Despite his four NBA titles at the time, Popovich said it was the most prestigious award he had ever received.

Popovich received his second Coach of the Year Award for the 2011–12 NBA season on May 2, 2012.

Popovich beat starter Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginóbili, and Danny Green in a nationally televised match against the Miami Heat on November 29, 2012. Popovich used to sit out his starters on road trips to ensure they had enough calories for the playoffs to keep; the Spurs' roster was one of the oldest in the league. Commissioner David Stern was outraged by this and said on the night of the game that it was "unacceptable" and that "substantial fines [would] be announced." Stern suspended the Spurs $250,000 on November 30 for "a disservice to the league and the fans." Popovich had not notified the Heat, the league, or the media in a timely period that the four players were not able to Miami, according to Stern. Larry Wojnarowski of Yahoo! blasted Stern's decision! "Stern isn't concerned about the facts of his sport, but the appearances," a sportsman said. Popovich had attempted to embarrass him on national television, so the commissioner dropped the tantrum."

Popovich led the Spurs to the 2013 NBA Finals against the Miami Heat. The Spurs lost their first-ever Finals match, but seven games lasted.

Popovich received the Red Auerbach Trophy for the third time on April 22, 2014. He also won his fifth NBA championship with San Antonio that season, defeating the Heat 4–1 in the Finals.

Popovich became the ninth coach in NBA history to win 1,000 games against the Indiana Pacers on February 9, 1995. He and Jerry Sloan are the only two NBA coaches to win 1,000 games with a single franchise in history.

Popovich served as Team Africa's head coach at the 2015 NBA Africa exhibition game on August 1, 2015.

Popovich led the Spurs to a record-breaking 67 victories in 2015–16, but he and the team lost in the conference semifinals against the Oklahoma City Thunder in six games.

Popovich defeated Sloan on February 4, 2017, defeating Sloan in their 1,128th regular season win with one franchise.

Popovich won his 1,413th game on April 13, 2019, defeating Lenny Wilkens and becoming the all-time winningest coach in NBA history (regular season and playoffs combined).

Popovich listened to NBA commissioner Adam Silver's remarks regarding the NBA and China controversy.

Popovich won his 1,300th regular season game on March 27, 2021, his third NBA coach to reach the milestone.

Popovich led the Spurs to their 1,333rd regular season victory on February 16, 2022, defeating Lenny Wilkens for second place all time. Popovich led the Spurs to their 1,336th regular season victory on March 11, defeating Don Nelson for first place all time. To set this record, Popovich played 370 fewer games than Don Nelson.

National team career

Popovich served on the coaching staff for the US men's national team in 2002 (assisting George Karl) and the Athens 2004 Olympic Games (assisting Larry Brown) where the US team captured the bronze medal and was among the Bronze medalists.

Popovich took over as the head coach of the US men's national team on October 23, 2015, taking over from Mike Krzyzewski after the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

The U.S. national team finished seventh in seventh place at the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup, its lowest finish in international competition ever.

With Popovich as the head coach for the United States men's national team, the team won gold medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, going 5-1 and overtaking France 87-82 in the final.

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