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Ramona Shelburne
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Ramona Shelburne
ESPN Senior Creator
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Michael C. Wright
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Michael C. Wright
ESPN Team of workers Creator
- Joined ESPN in 2010
- In the past lined Bears for ESPN.com
- Performed faculty soccer at West Texas A&M
Mar 18, 2025, 08:09 AM ET
THE DRIVE FROM Keldon Johnson’s ranch in Boerne, Texas, to the Frost Financial institution Middle was once predictable. Thirty mins at the weekends, 45 throughout the week. However nowadays he has to go away early to account for the development on apparently each main freeway within the space.
The entirety in regards to the town and the San Antonio Spurs feels love it’s rising — bursting with new power and citizens who have come right here to fill in the entire wide-open house that used to outline this a part of Texas.
Even earlier than the Spurs drafted Victor Wembanyama, No. 1 general in 2023, that power used to be inspiring to train Gregg Popovich. “What is most pleasurable is they’re like younger, blank slates. You get started on the backside and train,” he mentioned in 2022, after years of main a veteran-laden crew.
Johnson, who at 25 is in some way the Spurs’ longest-tenured participant, has discovered to practice Popovich’s lead. Which is why they each arrived on the enviornment so early at the afternoon of Nov. 2, 2024.
Johnson used to be there to get further paintings and remedy earlier than a sport towards the Minnesota Timberwolves, and Popovich, then at age 75, used to be there to head during the pregame exercise regimen that had change into very important as he made his method during the grind of an NBA season.
However in a while after stepping clear of his exercise subsequent to the crew’s locker room, deep within the warren of white, silver and black hallways on the enviornment, Popovich stopped in his tracks. Staff staffers who had been round whilst he used to be lifting weights knew one thing used to be off and grabbed him, in keeping with resources with wisdom of the location.
They straight away sat Popovich down.
Within reach, Johnson heard the commotion because the trainer started receiving scientific consideration.
“I could not see him,” Johnson advised ESPN. “However to peer how everyone used to be speaking about it used to be frightening.”
Johnson attempted to get nearer, however Popovich used to be already being attended to by means of crew staffers who would ultimately lead him to an ambulance out of the world to a close-by clinic. Just a few gamers, staffers and enviornment staff had any sense of what had came about.
“No one in point of fact sought after to mention anything else,” Johnson mentioned. “No one sought after to allow us to in and let us know what used to be in point of fact occurring. The unknown used to be in point of fact tricky.”
Wednesday, March 19
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Lakers at Pacers, 7:30 p.m.
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At round 5:15 p.m., journalists collected within the interview room for Popovich’s pregame information convention. Despite the fact that he’s generally punctual, it wasn’t utterly out of the extraordinary for Popovich to be overdue or omit this sort of availabilities. One time closing season, he were given stuck in site visitors on his method from the crew’s new apply facility, The Rock at L. a. Cantera.
Different instances, he has ignored video games for minor scientific procedures or non-public causes. The assistant trainer who had run the scouting at the evening’s opponent used to be typically appointed to fill in.
So it did not carry any eyebrows when Spurs longtime spokesman Tom James got here into the room round 5:30 to announce that Popovich used to be “beneath the elements” and assistant trainer Mitch Johnson would lead the crew that evening.
In the back of the scenes, even though, phrase had begun to unfold a number of the crew that what had came about to Popovich — the rock upon which one of the vital NBA’s maximum a success franchises has been constructed — used to be severe and possibly life-threatening.
It might take time for medical doctors to decide the level of the wear and tear Popovich suffered after what used to be deemed a gentle stroke. Gamers were not in a position to speak to him for weeks. It used to be a number of months earlier than he used to be sturdy sufficient to stroll after which stand in entrance of the crew and talk without delay to them.
“It is been lovely tricky for me,” Johnson mentioned. “He is been our position type since I were given right here. He is been that chief.”
Such a lot has came about within the 5 months since. The Spurs made a blockbuster industry to land All-NBA guard De’Aaron Fox. Stephon Fortress has blossomed into the presumptive Rookie of the 12 months. Wembanyama seemed each bit just like the generational famous person he used to be billed to be earlier than he used to be misplaced for the season with a blood clot in his arm.
However Popovich hasn’t coached since that evening and may not trainer once more this season. Veteran Harrison Barnes mentioned Popovich is “forward of agenda” in his restoration. Some other supply mentioned the trainer has complex in 5 months of rehab to the purpose the place many that suffer strokes development over 9 months. Nonetheless, nobody is aware of but whether or not he can go back to the sidelines subsequent season, both.
This can be a extraordinary new fact for everybody. The bond between Popovich and the Spurs has been so forged, so ingrained in the whole thing, that it fueled the upward thrust of this proud franchise. They grew in combination, developed, elderly after which began anew. Till Popovich stopped in his tracks that afternoon in November, leaving everybody at a crossroads. The long-discussed and behind schedule succession plan used to be unexpectedly pressing, and choices that had been as soon as his to make, possibly had been now not.
For the primary time in 3 many years, the person who has been on the heart of this town and this franchise has been on a unique sideline — preventing to get again to what he as soon as used to be.
Even earlier than drafting Victor Wembanyama with the No. 1 select within the 2023 NBA Draft, Popovich were energized by means of his crew’s formative years. “What is most pleasurable,” he mentioned in 2022, “is they’re like younger, blank slates. You get started on the backside and train.” Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports activities
THERE ARE REMINDERS of Popovich’s affect all over the place San Antonio. Prevent by means of the Hen Bakery in Alamo Heights the place he had cookies personalized for his seventieth celebration. Or Battalion, a wonderful eating Italian spot within the historical Firehouse 7 construction the place Popovich is an investor. Or one in every of his favourite French bistros over in Southtown: Bar Loretta. Each and every waiter or sommelier has a tale, a fond reminiscence of when Popovich got here by means of.
Johnson does, too. Popovich invited Johnson and that yr’s rookie magnificence to a complicated dinner at Bliss, a cafe in Southtown that includes American fare. “He used to be like, ‘Y’all take a look at those oysters,'” Johnson mentioned. “And Quinndary [Weatherspoon] used to be like, ‘I ain’t by no means had oysters.'”
“You wish to have to play?” Popovich mentioned. “You higher take a look at the oysters.”
Thankfully for Johnson, he had attempted oysters, passing Popovich’s first take a look at. Over the following 5 years that he performed for him, the assessments saved coming.
In 2021, he invited Johnson to the nationwide crew camp, telling him, “I want you to be able as a result of I am going out on a limb telling everyone you are prepared.” Johnson simply assumed he used to be being invited to the junior crew camp. Even that used to be daunting.
However Popovich idea he used to be in a position to extra, and when Johnson had a robust camp, the trainer went out on any other limb, opting for him for the Olympic crew that competed within the Summer season Olympics.
“He is in point of fact formed who I’m as a tender guy,” Johnson mentioned. “Numerous folks suppose Pop is so stern. No, no, no. He is one of the vital easiest human beings I have ever been round. He treats everyone in point of fact smartly and places everybody earlier than himself.”
His legacy is ironclad, unimpeachable, and used to be already so if he’d retired a decade in the past, after San Antonio gained its closing championship in 2014. The 5 championship trophies the Spurs gained — throughout their unheard of 22-year run of creating the playoffs beneath Popovich and govt R.C. Buford — are housed within The Rock, now the biggest mass bushes (herbal wooden) sports activities facility in North The usa.
Positioned 20 miles up Freeway 10, at 1 Spurs Method, the group spent $500 million to open the 45-acre neighborhood venue within the fall of 2023. Along with cutting-edge amenities for the Spurs, there are parks for households, eating places, neighborhood trails, a 40-foot LED display screen that performs the whole thing from Spurs video games all over the week to “sing-along Sundays,” in addition to plans for a scientific heart that can serve the neighborhood. It used to be made in Popovich’s symbol — what he values and what he cares about.
Essentially the most distinguished show within the 134,000-square-foot construction, on the other hand, is Popovich’s training mantra, The Stonecutter’s Credo:
When not anything turns out to lend a hand, I’m going and take a look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock possibly 100 instances with out up to a crack appearing in it. But on the hundred and primary blow it’ll cut up in two, and I realize it used to be now not that blow that did it, however all that had long past earlier than.
The quote from Jacob Riis, a Danish activist and reformer, seeps into each facet of Popovich and the Spurs, even if Popovich would have you ever consider he has performed only a small position in setting up it. However it is the Spurs Method.
“I used to be tasked with the task to create an atmosphere so we will have some good fortune,” he mentioned at his Corridor of Repute rite in 2023, a rite he behind schedule till the Corridor of Repute gamers he coached — David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker — were inducted.
However in truth Popovich’s affect on basketball, and at the Spurs, can by no means be absolutely encapsulated.
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“Pop is as just right a trainer as there has ever been in any recreation,” former Duke trainer Mike Krzyzewzski, just lately advised ESPN.
The 2 training lions have grown nearer later of their skilled lives.
“We in point of fact were given to understand every different when he used to be named the nationwide trainer and I used to be nonetheless the nationwide trainer,” Krzyzewski says. “We changed into actual shut and I wanted I used to be that shut with him my whole profession.”
He admired how Popovich had led his groups and attempted to make use of his platform out of doors of training, he mentioned. They might bonded over their army pasts. Krzyzewski used to be an Military cadet. Popovich went to the Air Power Academy.
Krzyzewski had the posh of making plans his retirement and opting for his successor [Jon Scheyer] when he retired in 2022 at age 75. He used to be able to be executed with the entire shuttle and recruiting and calls for of training a best faculty program. And he had a task with Duke and circle of relatives lifestyles all arrange and looking forward to him.
Popovich wasn’t there but. His hobby for training stays, particularly for this younger crew with Wembanyama as its chief. And so far as the Spurs had been involved, that used to be the way it will have to be.
“It is Pop’s determination,” one individual on the subject of the location advised ESPN. “He is earned that.”
THAT HAS BEEN the Spurs’ succession plan for the simpler a part of a decade. Every summer season, Popovich would take a while to digest the season and notice if the fireplace nonetheless burned within him. Buford and Co. would stay up for phrase, trusting that Popovich would at all times be truthful sufficient with himself to do what used to be easiest for the group.
Over time, a part dozen assistant coaches had been mentioned as attainable successors. First it used to be Mike Brown, Mike Budenholzer and Brett Brown, however they ultimately were given head training positions somewhere else. Then got here Ime Udoka, Becky Hammon, Will Hardy, James Borrego, Monty Williams and Taylor Jenkins. Popovich outlasted all of them, too.
Ultimate yr there used to be communicate across the league that Golden State Warriors trainer Steve Kerr, who performed for Popovich for 4 seasons, might be situated as a successor if he did not come to an settlement on an extension with the Warriors. However Kerr re-signed with Golden State for 2 extra seasons — a deal that ends after subsequent season — and the expectancy is that he will trainer there so long as Stephen Curry is hitting 3-pointers by means of the Bay.
So it used to be Johnson who used to be named meantime head trainer in November. In comparison to others who’ve been discussed as conceivable successors, Johnson’s resume used to be mild. He’d performed at Stanford, got here up during the Spurs device and had earned a robust recognition in training circles after interviewing for a head training task closing summer season in Toronto.
“Seeing him within the place he is in now isn’t a surprise. He belongs there,” Milwaukee Greenbacks heart Brook Lopez, a former teammate of Johnson’s at Stanford, advised ESPN.
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“Such an clever basketball participant, the very best basketball IQ I have ever performed with or been round,” Lopez mentioned. “He sees the sport in a different way. We in reality referred to as him “maestro” as a result of the best way he conducts and runs the display.”
Nonetheless, James, who has been the Spurs best communications legit for 30 years after first becoming a member of the group in 1988 as an intern, knew lots of the media in Los Angeles were not acquainted with him earlier than the crew’s sport towards the LA Clippers on November 4.
“For the ones of you now not from San Antonio, our trainer this night is Mitch Johnson,” James mentioned in entrance of the room, a couple of mins earlier than Johnson stepped to the rostrum.
The sensation within the room used to be somber. The whole extent of Popovich’s state of affairs used to be nonetheless getting into focal point.
Previous that day, officers published to the crew that Popovich had suffered a stroke, resources mentioned. He used to be nonetheless within the clinic, and nobody may say but how harmful the stroke were.
It used to be an unattainable replace for the crew to swallow. They might spent the previous two days now not realizing what had came about, best to be informed simply how severe it used to be. All a few of them knew used to be that their chief were whisked away in an ambulance, from the protection of the world to the unknown.
Previous to tipoff at Intuit Dome, veteran level guard Chris Paul used to be requested to talk for the gamers, and he did so, only a few steps clear of the locker room.
“We all know he will be looking at,” Paul mentioned earlier than the sport. “He’ll tell us what he sees. All of the guys with our crew, body of workers, everybody unquestionably misses him as a result of he is Pop. There is a feeling when he is within the room that simply calms everyone.”
Mitch Johnson delivered his personal heartfelt commentary about Popovich earlier than the sport, earlier than going via his pregame warm-up with Wembanyama and the crew. “I simply wish to get started off by means of announcing that Pop’s affect on our group … it is onerous to articulate or put into phrases, and if I attempted it could now not do it justice,” he mentioned. “He is been super for me individually, and at the moment his well being is the No. 1 precedence. … I talked to him closing evening. He is in just right spirits. He is OK, and we will’t wait to have him again.”
The Spurs got here out making just about each shot towards the Clippers, construction a 26-point lead by means of the top of the primary quarter. However ultimately the emotional toll stuck as much as them.
They misplaced, 113-104.
Keldon Johnson, at 25, is the Spurs’ longest-tenured participant. He is additionally very on the subject of Popovich. “He is in point of fact formed who I’m as a tender guy,” Johnson mentioned. ” … He is one of the vital easiest human beings I have ever been round.” Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports activities
FOR A CITY that is converting as impulsively as the elements shifts in south Texas, the Spurs transfer at a decidedly slower tempo. Strikes, updates and adjustments occur in the back of closed doorways, and the franchise broadcasts or recognizes them in some way that creates as little noise as conceivable.
Previously 9 years, the crew quietly modified management, from longtime proprietor Peter Holt, who retired in 2016, to his ex-wife, Julianna Hawn Holt, and now to their kids, Peter John Holt and Corrina Holt Richter, who constitute the circle of relatives at the franchise’s board of managers. The membership has additionally added minority house owners and strategic companions reminiscent of Michael Dell, CEO of Dell Applied sciences, Joe Gebbia, co-founder and chairman of Airbnb, and the McCombs circle of relatives, which returned after 30 years in 2023 to buy a proportion within the group that the circle of relatives’s patriarch helped identify and as soon as owned.
Those are large adjustments for a franchise. Had they came about in New York or Los Angeles and even Dallas, it could’ve been world information. However with the Spurs, there have been a couple of tales within the native media and the whole thing saved on going how it has for the previous 3 many years.
That is as a result of Popovich and Buford, who met on Larry Brown’s body of workers at Kansas 39 years in the past and feature been inseparable ever since. Buford is the Spurs’ CEO whilst Popovich is the Spurs’ president and head trainer. Brian Wright has been the crew’s basic supervisor since 2019.
The group strikes when it has readability on a state of affairs, now not when there may be hypothesis.
The Spurs have presented 4 updates on Popovich since Nov. 2. First to mention that he would now not shuttle with the crew to Los Angeles. Then, 11 days in a while Nov. 13, to mention he’d suffered a gentle stroke and used to be anticipated to make a whole restoration.
Then, a month in a while December 16, Popovich launched a commentary thanking everybody for the outpouring of reinforce he’d won, joking that “nobody is extra excited to peer me go back to the bench than the gifted people who had been main my rehabilitation procedure. They have temporarily discovered that I am not up to coachable.”
In spite of everything on February 27, Popovich introduced that he would now not go back to the sidelines this season however was hoping that he may go back to training at some point.
In between the ones statements, his restoration improved. After a couple of weeks within the clinic, Popovich used to be launched, and a couple of months after that, he used to be in a position to start out strolling once more, resources with wisdom of the location advised ESPN.
“It is Pop’s determination. He is earned that.”
Supply with wisdom of the Spurs
He used to be in communique with the training body of workers, entrance place of job and several other gamers all over his rehabilitation, more than one gamers and crew officers mentioned. Keldon Johnson mentioned he may inform from the textual content messages and calls he won from Popovich that he’d been paying shut consideration to the crew all over the season.
“He will inform me that he is happy with me, that he beloved me,” Johnson mentioned. “In a protracted season, conversations that in point of fact push me via to that subsequent day.”
Through overdue January, Popovich used to be smartly sufficient to handle the crew in individual. However with the once a year Rodeo street commute beginning February 3 in Memphis, it used to be tough to discover a date. To start with, resources mentioned the Spurs deliberate for Popovich to handle the crew the primary day again after the All-Megastar wreck. However that plan fell via when Wembanyama skilled ache in his shoulder whilst touring in Wyoming after the All-Megastar Sport.
Two days later, the crew introduced that Wembanyama would omit the rest of the season after a blood clot used to be came upon in his proper arm.
On Feb. 27, an off day between a sport in Houston and a sport in Memphis, the Spurs had been in a position to make time for Popovich to talk to his crew. The collective weight of Popovich’s absence, Wembanyama’s devastating information and the lengthy street commute — they would been house best two times in a month — had taken a toll. The Spurs had misplaced 4 in a row to drop out of the playoff image.
At the apply courtroom at The Rock, Popovich stood in entrance of his crew to ship a message: He wasn’t coming again this season, he advised them. However he were looking at them intently and used to be nonetheless in place to carry them answerable for their play.
“Everyone close the f— up when he walked in,” Johnson mentioned. “That is simply how it is at all times been with Pop. Clearly, he is nonetheless recuperating. However he used to be nonetheless cussing. ‘Y’all wish to play protection. Y’all wish to rebound.’ Understanding that, s—, he in point of fact is looking at the video games as a result of he is calling out particular scenarios, used to be large.
“It used to be what we would have liked. I think like he introduced that lifestyles, that spark. That Pop that all of us knew and beloved. He got here into that assembly and that is the reason who he used to be. It used to be like he did not skip a beat.”
He spoke a little bit extra slowly than earlier than, extra measured. Dressed in an all-black sweatsuit, Popovich talked in regards to the long run, one he hopes features a spot on the head of the bench. But in addition he cautioned, reiterating a normal that has come to outline his 3 many years on the helm.
If I will be able to’t be 100% myself, I am doing everyone a disservice.
Popovich has led quite a lot of eras via a just about three-decade reign within the NBA, from David Robinson to Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker, to Kawhi Leonard. He hopes to guide the following one too. (AP Picture/Eric Homosexual, Record)
His phrases had been met with silence and nods.
“It is a lot larger than basketball,” Fox mentioned. “That is about his lifestyles.”
The message hit.
“It is an inspiration,” Fox mentioned. “Going during the issues that he is going via, and him looking to combat again simply to be available in the market. This can be a testomony to who he’s as an individual and you’ll inform that he in point of fact desires to be again available in the market.
Fox, who will omit the remainder of the season with a tendon harm in his pinkie, had best talked to Popovich at the telephone since becoming a member of the crew in a industry on February 2. This used to be the primary time he’d noticed Popovich since coming to San Antonio.
“It might cross from severe to guffawing again to severe and guffawing,” Fox advised ESPN. “However he is aware of methods to stay folks engaged, and I believe that is why he is been in a position to do what he does for see you later. Clearly, we wish him to be as wholesome as conceivable. However I would really like to be coached by means of Pop, needless to say.”
FOR AS MUCH that has modified in San Antonio since Popovich first arrived in 1988, there are a few things that by no means do.
Other folks would possibly go away the Spurs at one level of their careers, however they regularly come again to reside in San Antonio. This position, just like the group, is a perpetually house. As soon as you might be a part of the Spurs circle of relatives, there may be at all times a spot for you.
Monty Williams got here again after his first spouse, Ingrid, used to be killed in a automobile twist of fate in 2016. He got here again once more after being fired in Phoenix in 2023 and Detroit in 2024. He is training his sons, Elijah and Micah, along side Tim Duncan’s son, Draven, at TMI Episcopal Prime Faculty now.
Duncan by no means left after his taking part in profession led to 2016. Neither did Ginobili, who took a task with the Spurs and regularly brings his 14-year-old dual boys to house video games. Parker has left and are available again a number of instances, having just lately been across the crew as he plans out his long run in basketball.
Mike Brown got here again in between jobs. So did Danny Ferry and Chris Grant.
This may be a part of the Spurs Method. Popovich created this tradition, and it has persisted. The query, now, is the way it evolves when he’s now not its steward.
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It is a query that has hung over the franchise for a decade however nonetheless does not appear actual, regardless of the whole thing that is came about this yr. To just about everybody concerned, together with possibly the person himself, it is unattainable to consider any choice.
However in truth, a lot has already modified. Popovich has passed increasingly more of the training tasks to his assistants through the years. He empowered them to train in his stead more than one instances.
He even moved from his longtime house in Dominion to a penthouse in Southtown a couple of years again. That highest four-bedroom space with the custom designed wine cellar he beloved such a lot? He bought it throughout the pandemic in 2020.
His kids are grown. His spouse, Erin, passed on to the great beyond in 2018 after a protracted sickness. The entirety used to be converting, and so he did, too.
Throughout his Corridor of Repute speech, the famously non-public guy stated a few of what he’d been via and what sort of he used to be nonetheless taking a look ahead to in his lifestyles.
He thanked his kids, Mickey and Jill, for taking a look after him. He gushed as he referred to as out to “the celebrities of the display,” his grandchildren Bridget and Finn.
“My spouse Erin used to be our rock,” he mentioned. “My daughter Jill has taken over the mantle and assists in keeping us at the instantly and slender.”
That is what he is been preventing for this yr: to get again to the lifestyles he constructed for his circle of relatives, his crew and his town — after which make a decision, on his personal phrases, how and when it’s time to go away.
ESPN’s Tim MacMahon contributed to this document.
