Legendary Bench Boss Inducted Into HOF
It’s not every year you see a legendary head coach get inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame alongside one of the players he coached in Tony Parker and one of his assistant coaches in Becky Hammon.
That’s how extraordinary the career of San Antonio Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich has been. The fact that he’s still coaching the Spurs for the 27th consecutive season, connecting with yet another generation of athletes, is yet another feather in the cap of one of the game’s all-time greats.
HOF Induction Adds to Pop’s Greatness
Since taking over the helm in 1996, Gregg Popovich has led the Spurs to nothing but success. He led the Spurs to 22 straight winning seasons capturing 5 NBA championships along the way. He’s also coached in the All-Star Game four times and won the Coach of the Year Award 3 times.
Popovich is now the all-time winningest head coach in the NBA after breaking Don Nelson’s previous record for most regular-season wins. Pop currently sits at 1,364 regular-season victories on his resume and doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon after he signed a five-year extension with the Spurs.
During his time on the sidelines, he led Team USA to a gold medal finish in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as head coach, adding to an expansive international resume that includes an Olympic bronze, and FIBAs gold as an assistant coach as well.
More than the number of times he led the Spurs to championships, it’s the kind of players he was able to develop that makes the 74-year-old coach so important to the game even when the Spurs weren’t making the playoffs.
Under Pop’s guidance, the NBA witnessed some of its greatest players emerge from the Spurs basketball program. Legends like David Robinson, Avery Johnson, Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, Kawhi Leonard, and effective role players like Brent Barry, Patty Mills, Gary Neal, among others. The Popovich coaching tree is expansive to say the least.
Many of the current NBA head coaches used to be part of Gregg Popovich’s coaching staff. A list which includes Steve Kerr of the Golden State Warriors, Taylor Jenkins of the Memphis Grizzlies, and Mike Brown of the Sacramento Kings,
In Game One of the 2022 NBA Finals, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver thanked Pop. “Thank you, Gregg Popovich. He practically runs an academy there [in San Antonio] for future coaches, and not just coaches but team executives. He’s done a fantastic job.”
At the time, another Popovich protege in Ime Udoka- then head coach of the Boston Celtics was making his NBA Finals debut. Adam Silver isn’t wrong. Gregg Popovich does most of his work state-side but his impact has reached global proportions. An impact that’s expected to dig even deeper still with an opportunity to coach another once-in-a-generation talent in Victor Wembanyama of France.
Pop’s HOF induction on Saturday cements his legacy as one of the greatest coaches in basketball. And when the 2023-2024 season opens, the Spurs can now officially say they’re coached by a 74-year-old Hall of Famer. And he’s not stopping anytime soon. A Wemby-Pop duo could be set to make noise for a long, long time.
-Iggy Gonzales
Photo: R.D. Ward. This image is a work of a U.S. military or Department of Defense employee, taken or made as part of that person’s official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain in the United States.