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Michael C. Wright
Multiple Authors
TUCKED AWAY HIGH in the rafters right next to the retired jerseys of Hall of Famers Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker, the banner celebrating Gregg Popovich looks different than the rest of the jersey-shaped mementos honoring greatness at Frost Bank Center.
“POP 1,390,” just above the San Antonio Spurs logo and the words “Hall of Fame.” In recognition of the five championships Popovich brought to the city of San Antonio, five stars line the top of the banner. The number represents Popovich’s NBA-record regular-season win total as the club’s coach.
When the Spurs quietly raised the banner to the rafters in late October, they didn’t send out an announcement. No ceremony commenced at Frost Bank Center, either. Not even the obligatory shoutout from the arena announcer to acknowledge the banner.
This is what Popovich wanted.
Spurs coach Mitch Johnson described it as “very Pop-esque.”
Popovich’s presence at the Victory Capital Performance Center follows a similar pathway, except it’s the franchise’s current players who draw attention to Popovich, who stepped down a little more than a year ago after suffering a stroke on Nov. 2, 2024. Now the team’s president of basketball operations, Popovich, 77, typically posts up alone in the background at the team’s practice facilities after completing his rehabilitation workouts under Duncan’s watchful eye.
The Spurs swarm, like mosquitos in the summer.
“It’s always great to have Pop around,” said point guard Stephon Castle, who played five games last season for Popovich as a rookie. “Especially at this time, when games matter the most. He’s been through it obviously more than anybody else in our organization. When we see him, we go up to greet him all the time. Even if it’s not about basketball, that’s a guy you could talk to about literally anything.”
When the Spurs returned to San Antonio after French phenom Victor Wembanyama was ejected during a Game 4 loss in the Western Conference semifinals to Minnesota for elbowing Naz Reid, Popovich was waiting for the Frenchman at the airport.
A local television station caught Popovich addressing Wembanyama. Arms behind his back, wearing a black Nike sweatsuit, Wembanyama, 22, listened intently to the Hall of Fame coach.
“I’m not going to leak anything he said, obviously,” Wembanyama said after a Game 5 blowout of Minnesota. “But he maybe wanted to make a statement or make his talking even more impactful by being there. He gives feedback and talks to us regularly throughout our series, throughout our games. As always, when he speaks, everybody listens.”
With a win over the Minnesota Timberwolves in Friday night’s Game 6 (9:30 p.m. ET, Prime), the Spurs can advance to the Western Conference finals for the first time since Popovich led them there in 2017. Only one Spurs starter, De’Aaron Fox, has previous playoff experience — and seven of the Spurs’ 10 rotation players are under 26 and had never appeared in a playoff game — but this young team is learning from San Antonio legends such as Popovich as they navigate these playoffs.
Popovich’s voice, however, emanates these days from a variety of sources at practice and resonates as if he’s delivering the messages himself. After all, he created the “Spurs way” the current regime is stewarding. So, it only makes sense for the new group, led by Johnson and general manager Brian Wright, to lean on all the championship resources still populating the building as they guide San Antonio through its next evolution.
On any given day at the facility, a current Spur can walk into a room filled with championship players from the past. It’s not uncommon to go to lunch and find Ginobili dining with three-time champion Bruce Bowen, whose No. 12 jersey is retired in San Antonio. Duncan, who once had a space in the coaches’ locker room at the old facility, is a fixture at the new spot, too, along with two-time champ and 10-time All-Star David Robinson and Sean Elliott, who in 1999 played a key role in the franchise’s first title.
“Everyone’s connected from the organization, from 20 years [ago] to now,” rookie guard Dylan Harper said during his first week in San Antonio. “Yesterday, I’m working out and I randomly see Tim Duncan, Gregg Popovich and Manu Ginobili. That’s not something you’ll see in any organization.”
On the same morning Popovich took part in San Antonio’s film study going into Game 5, Ginobili — officially a special adviser to basketball operations — walked down a hallway with Harper, a fellow lefty, who hours later would contribute 12 points and 10 rebounds in the team’s 13th win this season (regular season and playoffs) by 25 points or more. Sitting at a dais on the other side of the gym, forward Devin Vassell couldn’t wait for his shootaround interview to end.
“Honestly, when we’re done with this, I’m going to go talk to [Popovich] for a little bit,” Vassell said. “[In] the film session, he helped out a lot. You talk about the greatest coach of all time. To be able to sit here and tell you the experiences they’ve gone through or what he sees, that’s second to none.”
Spurs CEO R.C. Buford is the only active daily link between the old regime and the new, and he’s somewhat of a co-founder of the “Spurs way” alongside Popovich, who contributes when he can as “El Jefe” but is mostly tasked these days with rehabbing from his stroke. The club’s leadership group includes a pair of 39-year-olds in governor Peter J. Holt and Johnson, along with Wright, 43.
A former coach — he worked five years as an assistant with San Antonio and the LA Clippers — who worked side by side with Popovich, Buford misses the sounds of sneakers squeaking and basketballs bouncing. Buford, 65, hears them still but not as frequently in his white-collar role.
“The only reason either of us are here is because of R.C.,” Wright told ESPN. “He identified Mitch during the draft for Dejounte [Murray in 2016] and he came and got me out of Detroit. He should get the credit for going and finding people to continue to add to the program.”
These days, Buford liaises with ownership and assists the front office and coaching staff as a presence that virtually every part of the organization can lean on for resources and guidance.
Johnson needed them all last season when he took over for Popovich as interim coach the same night the Hall of Famer suffered a stroke ahead of a matchup against the Timberwolves, the club’s opponent in Friday’s Game 6.
“Leaning on the organization from top to bottom, the whole family, the front office, Brian, R.C., and Pop, the supporting staff, it has made it where I’ve never felt isolated [with] nowhere to turn or alone,” Johnson said. “When you have that type of support, it gives you confidence. I’ve been blessed to have that now for years in a lot of different roles [with Popovich] as our relationship has grown over time. He’s been that for so many people in so many moments, times and situations. It’s one of his special powers for sure.”
It endures, too, culturally.
While Popovich started the pound-the-rock culture in San Antonio, the Spurs of the past and present are intent on carrying the coach and fanbase into the franchise’s next iteration with Wembanyama as its centerpiece likely for years to come.
“[Popovich] was one of the hardest people on me,” NBA Sixth Man of the Year Keldon Johnson told ESPN. Johnson, who scored a career postseason high of 21 points in Game 5, celebrated winning the award last month with Ginobili, who captured it 2008.
“To hear him say he’s proud of me and to keep doing what I’m doing means the world to me,” Johnson said. “He really helped me become a true professional, a better young man on and off the court. He’s helped mold my career in ways nobody else could when I was that age. He’s done that for a lot of people.”
Multiple sources within the organization describe Popovich’s presence as “a gift.” But it’s important to note that Johnson isn’t trying to coach the same way as Popovich, who has stressed to Johnson to simply be himself throughout this journey. Wright, meanwhile, also isn’t running the front office in the same manner as Buford.
They’re being themselves, authentically, using the “Spurs Way” established by Popovich as the North Star. Buford realizes the “Spurs Way” has evolved since his time running the franchise alongside Popovich, and he can’t wait to see how the club’s next chapter ultimately unfolds.
“The ability to have Pop, Manu, Tim and David in the gym around the program, carrying forward what we’re each proud to have been a part of, is a real gift to us,” Buford told ESPN. “Hopefully we can support them in any way that they need without getting in the way.”
