Gregg Popovich

Gregg Popovich

Personal information
Born	(1949-01-28) January 28, 1949 East Chicago, Indiana
Nationality	American
Career information
High school	Merrillville High School
College	Air Force
Coaching career	1973–present
Career history
As coach:
1988–1992	San Antonio Spurs (assistant)
1992	Golden State Warriors (assistant)
1996–present	San Antonio Spurs
Career highlights and awards
4× NBA champion (1999, 2003, 2005, 2007) 4× Western Conference Champion (1999, 2003, 2005, 2007) 3× NBA All-Star Game head coach (2005, 2011, 2013) 2× NBA Coach of the Year (2003, 2012)

Gregg Popovich (born January 28, 1949) is an American basketball coach who is currently the head coach of the National Basketball Association's San Antonio Spurs. Taking over as coach of the Spurs in 1996, Popovich is the longest tenured coach in both the NBA and all Big Four sports leagues. He is often referred to as "Coach Pop" or simply "Pop." He has won four championships as head coach of the Spurs.

From Indiana to the Air Force Academy

Popovich was born in East Chicago, Indiana to a Serbian father and mother of Croatian descent. 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 masters degree in physical education and sports sciences. In 1979, he was named the head basketball coach of Pomona-Pitzer's men's team.

During his time as head coach at Pomona-Pitzer, Popovich became a disciple and later a close friend of head coach Larry Brown at Kansas University. 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 Air Force Academy to receive the Academy's award of Distinguished Graduate. Despite his four NBA titles, Popovich said that the award possibly was the most meaningful award he had ever received.

NBA 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

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. The two won an NBA title together in 1999.

Another one of Popovich's early moves in San Antonio was to trade Dennis Rodman to the Chicago Bulls for Will Perdue^{[citation needed]}. Rodman was not fond of Popovich, as he said in his first book Bad As I Wanna Be^{[citation needed]}.

After the Spurs got out to a 3-15 start 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 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 59 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 three more championships with the Spurs--2003, 2005, and 2007. Popovich has been named NBA Coach of the Year twice, in 2003 and 2012.

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 Ginobli, 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 that the Spurs' actions were "unacceptable," and that "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 as the Spurs beat the Utah Jazz.

International basketball

Popovich served on the coaching staff for the US 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.

Head coaching record

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
SAS	1996–97	64	17	47	.266	6th in Midwest	—	—	—	—	Missed Playoffs
SAS	1997–98	82	56	26	.683	2nd in Midwest	9	4	5	.444	Lost in Conf. Semifinals
SAS	1998–99	50	37	13	.740	1st in Midwest	17	15	2	.882	Won NBA Championship
SAS	1999–00	82	53	29	.646	2nd in Midwest	4	1	3	.250	Lost in First Round
SAS	2000–01	82	58	24	.707	1st in Midwest	13	7	6	.538	Lost in Conf. Finals
SAS	2001–02	82	58	24	.707	1st in Midwest	10	4	6	.400	Lost in Conf. Semifinals
SAS	2002–03	82	60	22	.732	1st in Midwest	24	16	8	.667	Won NBA Championship
SAS	2003–04	82	57	25	.695	2nd in Midwest	10	6	4	.600	Lost in Conf. Semifinals
SAS	2004–05	82	59	23	.720	1st in Southwest	23	16	7	.696	Won NBA Championship
SAS	2005–06	82	63	19	.768	1st in Southwest	13	7	6	.538	Lost in Conf. Semifinals
SAS	2006–07	82	58	24	.707	2nd in Southwest	20	16	4	.800	Won NBA Championship
SAS	2007–08	82	56	26	.683	2nd in Southwest	17	9	8	.529	Lost in Conf. Finals
SAS	2008–09	82	54	28	.659	1st in Southwest	5	1	4	.200	Lost in First Round
SAS	2009–10	82	50	32	.610	2nd in Southwest	10	4	6	.400	Lost in Conf. Semifinals
SAS	2010–11	82	61	21	.744	1st in Southwest	6	2	4	.333	Lost in First Round
SAS	2011–12	66	50	16	.758	1st in Southwest	14	10	4	.714	Lost in Conf. Finals
SAS	2012–13	82	58	24	.707	1st in Southwest	11	9	2	.818	In Conf. Finals now
Career		1328	905	423	.681		206	127	79	.620

Off the court

Popovich is actively involved in several charities and programs in San Antonio, such as the Spurs/Pizza Hut Drug Free Youth Basketball League and the San Antonio Food Bank. He is a noted wine enthusiast. He and his wife of 29 years, Erin, have two children, Micky and Jill.

Popovich is also a supporter of Vlade Divac's "You Can Too" campaign, designed to provide shelter to former Yugoslavian and African refugees.

See also

• National Basketball Association portal

External links

• NBA.com Profile
• Profile as a coach
• 'Pop' art by Adrian Wojnarowski (Yahoo! Sports)
• Kevin Arnovitz, "The book on Gregg Popovich," ESPN.com, May 29, 2012.