Gregg Popovich

Gregg Popovich

Popovich in March 2011, during his tenure with the San Antonio Spurs.
San Antonio Spurs
Position	Head coach / President of Basketball Operations
League	NBA
Personal information
Born	(1949-01-28) January 28, 1949 East Chicago, Indiana
Nationality	American
Career information
High school	Merrillville (Merrillville, Indiana)
College	Air Force (1966–1970)
Coaching career	1973–present
Career history
As coach:
1973–1979	Air Force (assistant)
1979–1986	Pomona-Pitzer
1986–1987	Kansas (volunteer asst.)
1987–1988	Pomona-Pitzer
1988–1992	San Antonio Spurs (assistant)
1992	Golden State Warriors (assistant)
1996–present	San Antonio Spurs
Career highlights and awards
As head coach: 5× NBA champion (1999, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2014) 3× NBA Coach of the Year (2003, 2012, 2014) 3× All-Star Game head coach (2005, 2011, 2013)

Gregg Charles Popovich (born January 28, 1949) is an American basketball coach who is currently the head coach of the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Taking over as coach of the Spurs in 1996, Popovich is the longest tenured active coach in both the NBA and all US major sports leagues. He is often referred to as "Coach Pop" or simply "Pop". He holds the record for most consecutive winning seasons (playoffs included) in NBA history at 18, and third all time for the regular season, behind Pat Riley with 19, and Phil Jackson with 20. Popovich has won five NBA championships as the head coach of the Spurs. Along with Phil Jackson, Red Auerbach, Pat Riley, and John Kundla, he is one of only five coaches in NBA history to win five or more NBA championships. He is also one of 9 coaches in NBA history to have won 1,000 NBA games. Achievements such as these are what garnered him recognition as one of the greatest basketball head coaches of all time.

Early life and education

Popovich was born in East Chicago, Indiana on January 28, 1949, to a Serbian father and Croatian mother. He started his basketball career playing Biddy Basketball and was on the 1960 Gary Biddy Basketball All-Star Team which finished third in the World Tournament, held at Gary's Memorial Auditorium. He attended Merrillville High School and graduated in 1970 from the United States Air Force Academy. He played basketball for four seasons at the Academy and in his senior year was the team captain and the leading scorer. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in Soviet Studies, and he underwent Air Force intelligence gathering and processing training. At one point, Popovich considered a career with the Central Intelligence Agency.

Popovich served five years of required active duty in the United States Air Force, during which he toured Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union with the U.S. Armed Forces Basketball Team. In 1972, he was selected as captain of the Armed Forces Team, which won the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) championship. This earned him an invitation to the 1972 U.S. Olympic Basketball Team trials.

Popovich returned to the Air Force Academy as an assistant coach in 1973 under head coach Hank Egan, a position he held for six years. Egan would later become an assistant coach under Popovich for the San Antonio Spurs, and later an assistant coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers under Mike Brown.

During his time with the coaching staff of the U.S. Air Force Academy, Popovich attended the University of Denver and earned his master's degree in physical education and sports sciences. In 1979, he was named the head basketball coach of Pomona-Pitzer's men's team. Popovich coached Pomona-Pitzer men's basketball 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 disciple and later a close friend of head coach Larry Brown at the University of Kansas. Popovich took off the 1985–1986 season at Pomona-Pitzer to become a volunteer assistant at Kansas, where he could study directly under Brown. Popovich returned to Pomona-Pitzer and resumed his duties as head coach the next season.

On April 4, 2008, Popovich returned to the U.S. Air Force Academy to receive the Academy's award of Distinguished Graduate. Despite his four NBA titles at the time, Popovich said it was the most meaningful award he had ever received.

Career

Following the 1987–88 season, Popovich joined Larry Brown as the lead assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs. From 1988 to 1992, Popovich was the top assistant under Brown, before the entire staff (including R. C. Buford, Alvin Gentry and Ed Manning) was fired by owner Red McCombs. Popovich moved to the Golden State Warriors for a brief stint in 1992, serving as an assistant under future Hall of Famer Don Nelson and bringing with him Avery Johnson, who had been cut by the Spurs.

San Antonio

Popovich in 2010

In 1994, Popovich returned to San Antonio as the general manager and Vice President of Basketball Operations after current owner Peter Holt purchased the team. Popovich's first move was to sign Avery Johnson to become the team's starting point guard. Another one of Popovich's early moves in San Antonio was to trade Dennis Rodman to the Chicago Bulls for Will Perdue. Rodman was not fond of Popovich, as he said in his first book Bad As I Wanna Be.

After the Spurs got out to a 3-15 start in the 1996-97 season, with David Robinson sidelined with a preseason back injury, Popovich fired coach Bob Hill and named himself head coach. However, Robinson broke his foot after only six games and was lost for the season. Sean Elliott was also limited to 39 games due to injury, and Chuck Person and Vinny Del Negro also missed significant time. With a decimated roster, the Spurs were a rudderless team, and won only 17 games for the remainder of the season for an overall record of 20-62. However, the Spurs' disastrous season allowed them to win the first overall pick in the NBA Lottery, which they used to draft Tim Duncan out of Wake Forest University. The Spurs blossomed as 6'11" Duncan teamed up with the 7'1" David Robinson to give them a "Twin Tower" offense and defense for several years. After recovering to win 56 games in Duncan's rookie year—and Popovich's first full year as coach—the Spurs came all the way back in 1999 to win their first NBA title.

In 2002, Popovich relinquished his position as general manager to R. C. Buford, who had served as the team's head scout. Popovich and Buford both got their starts in the NBA in 1988 as assistants on Brown's coaching staff with the Spurs.

Popovich has won five championships with the Spurs--1999，2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014. Popovich was named NBA Coach of the Year in 2003, 2012, and in 2014.

He earned his 500th career victory on March 2, 2006, becoming the fourth fastest coach in NBA history to reach that milestone. He led the team to a 63–19 season in 2006, which set a new franchise season record.

Popovich won his 100th playoff game on May 19, 2008, in a road game against the New Orleans Hornets. The win tied him for third place in all-time playoff coaching victories with his friend and mentor, Larry Brown.

On May 2, 2012, Popovich won his second coach of the year award for the 2011–12 NBA season.

On November 29, 2012, Popovich sat out starters Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, and Danny Green for a nationally televised game against the Miami Heat. Popovich has frequently sat out his starters on road trips over the years in order to ensure they have enough rest for the playoffs; the Spurs are one of the oldest teams in the league. NBA commissioner David Stern was outraged when he learned of this, and said on the night of the game the Spurs' actions were "unacceptable," and "substantial sanctions [would] be forthcoming." On November 30, Stern fined the Spurs $250,000 for what he called "a disservice to the league and the fans." According to Stern, Popovich had not informed the Heat, the league or the media in a suitable timeframe that the four players were not making the trip to Miami. Stern's decision was criticized by commentators such as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, who said, "Stern doesn't care about the realities of his league, just the appearances. To him, the appearance on Thursday night was that Popovich had tried to embarrass him on national television and that's why the commissioner tossed that tantrum."

On March 22, 2013, Popovich became the second head coach in NBA history to win 900 regular-season games with one team when the Spurs beat the Utah Jazz.

Popovich led the Spurs to the 2013 NBA Finals to face the Miami Heat. The series lasted seven games, but the Spurs lost the series to give Popovich his first Finals loss of his coaching career.

On April 22, 2014, Popovich was awarded the Red Auerbach Trophy as he won the NBA Coach of the Year for the third time in his career. He would also win his fifth NBA championship with the San Antonio Spurs that same season, beating the Miami Heat 4-1 in the Finals. Popovich's record in the Finals is 5-1.

On February 9, 2015, Popovich became the 9th coach in NBA history to win 1,000 games when the Spurs defeated the Indiana Pacers 95-93. He and Jerry Sloan are the only 2 coaches in NBA history to win 1,000 games with one franchise.

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

International basketball

Popovich served on the coaching staff for the U.S. national team in the 2002 FIBA World Championship (assisting George Karl), the 2003 FIBA America Men's Olympic Qualifying Tournament and the 2004 Olympic Games, where the U.S. won a bronze medal.

On October 23, 2015, Popovich was named as the next head coach of the U.S. national team. He will take over duties from current head coach Mike Krzyzewski after the 2016 Olympic Games.

Head coaching record

College

Season	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Postseason
Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens (Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) (1979–1986)
1979–80	Pomona-Pitzer	2–22	1–11	6th
1980–81	Pomona-Pitzer	10–15	3–9	6th
1981–82	Pomona-Pitzer	9–17	6–6
1982–83	Pomona-Pitzer	12–11	6–4
1983–84	Pomona-Pitzer	9–17	6–6
1984–85	Pomona-Pitzer	11–14	7–5
1985–86	Pomona-Pitzer	16–12	8–2	1st	NCAA D-III Regional Fourth Place
Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens (Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) (1987–1988)
1987–88	Pomona-Pitzer	7–19	4–6
Pomona-Pitzer:		76–129	41–49
Total:		76–129
National champion         Postseason invitational champion         Conference regular season champion         Conference regular season and conference tournament champion       Division regular season champion       Division regular season and conference tournament champion       Conference tournament champion

NBA

Legend
Regular season	G	Games coached	W	Games won	L	Games lost	W–L %	Win-loss %
Post season	PG	Playoff games	PW	Playoff wins	PL	Playoff losses	PW–L %	Playoff win-loss %

Team	Year	G	W	L	W–L%	Finish	PG	PW	PL	PW–L%	Result
San Antonio	1996–97	64	17	47	.266	6th in Midwest	—	—	—	—	Missed Playoffs
San Antonio	1997–98	82	56	26	.683	2nd in Midwest	9	4	5	.444	Lost in Conf. Semifinals
San Antonio	1998–99	50	37	13	.740	1st in Midwest	17	15	2	.882	Won NBA Championship
San Antonio	1999–00	82	53	29	.646	2nd in Midwest	4	1	3	.250	Lost in First Round
San Antonio	2000–01	82	58	24	.707	1st in Midwest	13	7	6	.538	Lost in Conf. Finals
San Antonio	2001–02	82	58	24	.707	1st in Midwest	10	4	6	.400	Lost in Conf. Semifinals
San Antonio	2002–03	82	60	22	.732	1st in Midwest	24	16	8	.667	Won NBA Championship
San Antonio	2003–04	82	57	25	.695	2nd in Midwest	10	6	4	.600	Lost in Conf. Semifinals
San Antonio	2004–05	82	59	23	.720	1st in Southwest	23	16	7	.696	Won NBA Championship
San Antonio	2005–06	82	63	19	.768	1st in Southwest	13	7	6	.538	Lost in Conf. Semifinals
San Antonio	2006–07	82	58	24	.707	2nd in Southwest	20	16	4	.800	Won NBA Championship
San Antonio	2007–08	82	56	26	.683	2nd in Southwest	17	9	8	.529	Lost in Conf. Finals
San Antonio	2008–09	82	54	28	.659	1st in Southwest	5	1	4	.200	Lost in First Round
San Antonio	2009–10	82	50	32	.610	2nd in Southwest	10	4	6	.400	Lost in Conf. Semifinals
San Antonio	2010–11	82	61	21	.744	1st in Southwest	6	2	4	.333	Lost in First Round
San Antonio	2011–12	66	50	16	.758	1st in Southwest	14	10	4	.714	Lost in Conf. Finals
San Antonio	2012–13	82	58	24	.707	1st in Southwest	21	15	6	.714	Lost in NBA Finals
San Antonio	2013–14	82	62	20	.756	1st in Southwest	23	16	7	.696	Won NBA Championship
San Antonio	2014–15	82	55	27	.671	3rd in Southwest	7	3	4	.429	Lost in First Round
Career		1,492	1,022	470	.685		246	152	94	.618

See also

• List of NBA championship head coaches
• National Basketball Association portal

External links

• NBA.com profile
• Profile as a coach