On Friday, the San Antonio Spurs announced that Gregg Popovich will no longer coach the team and is transitioning to a full-time role as president of basketball operations.
Popovich, 76, ends his coaching tenure as the league’s all-time wins leader with 1,422 regular-season victories with five championships and an NBA record-tying three Coach of the Year awards. Enter Mitch Johnson, who was named acting head coach after Popovich suffered a mild stroke in November and will now take over coaching duties on a permanent basis.
We asked our NBA Insiders the big questions following the Spurs and Popovich’s decision, including how it came to this, what’s next for the franchise and what Johnson brings to the role as San Antonio looks to open a contending window led by budding superstar Victor Wembanyama, guard De’Aaron Fox and newly minted Rookie of the Year Stephon Castle.
1. How did the Spurs and Pop come to this decision?
The Spurs were determined that Popovich had earned the right to decide when the time was right to step away. Popovich was adamant that he would only come back if he felt he could physically do the job. He still had a desire to coach, saying in recent years that he felt invigorated by working with young players eager to learn.
But ultimately, Popovich decided he needed to shift into a supportive role with Mitch Johnson, whom he was very fond of and high on as his successor.
— Ramona Shelburne
2. What are people around the league saying about Pop’s move?
There is relief and clarity. Popovich was definitely mulling continuing to coach for the last few months, which is why in his announcement that he wouldn’t return during the season didn’t say anything about his future. But he is NBA royalty and there was concern about the legendary coach’s health. After an incident recently that required a trip to the hospital, there was even more concern for Popovich’s well being.
The Spurs have been left in an excellent place by Popovich. He won five titles on the sideline but it is also fair to say one of his greatest accomplishments was leaving the position with a clean contingency plan.
“He took a lot of losses over the last few years that he didn’t have to take, it was a very unselfish act,” one veteran league executive told ESPN. “The team is set up for success. Unfortunately for him he won’t be on the sidelines for it, but the next generation of the team has his fingerprints on it.”
In addition to being willing to take the hardest steps in a rebuild in his last years in the job, Popovich helped create and maintain a renowned culture. Many organizations over the years tried to duplicate it by raiding Popovich’s front office and coaching staff. That culture will carry on long after his departure from the position.
He also helped train his replacement, as Mitch Johnson steadily got more responsibilities in his time on the bench. It wasn’t unusual, even before Johnson was named acting head coach, that Popovich would have him draw up late-game strategy in huddles. Over the years there were many assistants who were viewed as some undefined “head coach in waiting” in San Antonio. That’s because Popovich believed in developing assistants like he developed young players, by identifying them and nurturing those who he felt had high potential.
If this job had been open, and it never was because the Spurs handled all their business cleanly and quietly, it would’ve been viewed as one of the best in the league. As soon as word got out that Popovich was stepping down as coach but staying on as president the league knew Johnson was very likely going to be the pick. Sometimes keeping things in the family in the NBA is problematic. In San Antonio, it’s a secret sauce.
Popovich has always valued that and protected that. And the league knows he’s passing it on.
— Brian Windhorst
3. Who is Mitch Johnson and why did the Spurs give him the full time job?
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New Orleans Pelicans point guard Dejounte Murray has told ESPN on numerous occasions that Johnson saved his life as a teen by bailing him out of jail and putting him on a strict academics and basketball program that helped the now-28-year old matriculate to college and the NBA. So, when the Spurs started vetting Murray during the draft process (2016), Johnson quickly caught the organization’s attention for his coaching and communication acumen and brought him aboard as an assistant with the club’s G League affiliate Austin Spurs.
“One thing we said when he came and got me out of juvenile when I was 15 was, ‘We are in this together,'” Murray told ESPN of Johnson. “It was like we’re going to put in all this damned work and we’re going to see where the work takes us. So, even when we got into the league, we never knew all these things were going to happen or how things would happen. But it was like, we both put the work in. The rest is going to be history.”
Johnson advanced quickly through the organization and has spent the last six seasons as an assistant under Popovich, including five years at the front of the bench after a 2020 promotion.
The son of former two-time NBA All-Star and 1979 champion John “J.J.” Johnson, Mitch Johnson was an accomplished player in high school (two state championships at O’Dea High School in Seattle, where he averaged 22 points and eight assists as a senior) and college at Stanford, where he was a four-year starter playing alongside Brook Lopez, Robin Lopez and Landry Fields. Brook Lopez told ESPN that in college, they nicknamed Johnson “Maestro” due to the “the way he conducts and runs the show.”
“Seeing him in the position he’s in now is not a shock. He belongs there,” Lopez added. “[He’s] such an intelligent basketball player, the highest basketball IQ I’ve ever played with or been around.”
Within the Spurs organization, Johnson impressed Popovich, Spurs CEO RC Buford and GM Brian Wright with the way he navigated a tumultuous season in the wake of Popovich’s stroke and the club shelving Victor Wembanyama due to a blood clot issue in his shoulder. Johnson’s leadership never wavered in adverse situations during weeklong trips to New York and Paris, not to mention Los Angeles during the wildfires. Johnson held players accountable.
His words always resonated in the locker room. San Antonio’s players consistently competed for Johnson, and it didn’t go unnoticed among the franchise’s decision-makers.
“I trust the organization,” Wembanyama said. “I also trust Mitch to grow into that role. I think we are in good hands supporting each other throughout the organization.”
— Michael C. Wright
4. What will the offseason look like in San Antonio?
Getting clarity at head coach was the top priority on the Spurs to-do list.
The focus now shifts to the lottery. The Spurs not only have their own first-round pick but also a first from Atlanta. (San Antonio has a 6% chance of moving up from No. 8 to the top spot, while Atlanta’s is 0.7%.) As for the roster, 10 players are under contract, led by back-to-back Rookies of the Year in Victor Wembanyama and Stephon Castle.
The trade for De’Aaron Fox still has San Antonio positioned to make another big swing if a player such as Kevin Durant or Giannis Antetokounmpo become available this summer. The Spurs have the right to swap with Atlanta next year and then have the Hawks’ unprotected first-round pick in 2027. In total, they have six firsts in the next eight years, multiple years of pick swaps and 17 seconds. They also have the sizable contracts of Devin Vassell, Harrison Barnes and Keldon Johnson.
One date to circle on the Spurs’ calendar is Aug. 3. That is the first day Fox can sign a four-year $229 million max extension. And keep an eye on Chris Paul‘s future. After signing a one-year deal last offseason, Paul played all 82 games for the second time in his career and is set to enter free agency.
— Bobby Marks
5. What are the expectations for San Antonio next season?
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The 2026 postseason is a reasonable expectation, and falling short of the playoffs might be something of a disappointment. The Spurs were 21-25 this season in the 46 games Wembanyama played, just five of which came alongside Fox between San Antonio’s blockbuster midseason trade and Webmanyama being sidelined with deep vein thrombosis.
Slow-playing Wembanyama’s development allowed the Spurs to add Castle with the No. 4 pick last June and another lottery pick this year, but with the arrival of Fox and the future picks San Antonio has stockpiled, now is the time to start getting those young players experience in high-intensity games.
Only Kobe Bryant, Luka Doncic, Dwight Howard and LeBron James have been voted All-NBA before age 21.5, something Wembanyama was on track to achieve before falling short of the 65-game minimum due to his absence. All of those players made their playoff debuts by their third seasons in the league, with Howard and James both breaking through in year three.
The biggest obstacle to the Spurs making the playoffs is the loaded Western Conference, where no playoff team won fewer than 48 games this season. There’s no obvious contender to fall out of the playoffs, but the same was true last season, and the Houston Rockets and Memphis Grizzlies managed to break into the top eight with the New Orleans Pelicans and Phoenix Suns unexpectedly falling out.
At a minimum, San Antonio should be able to crack the play-in tournament for the first time since 2022. The Spurs would have had a chance at claiming the 10th seed this season had Wembanyama stayed healthy. But the goal should be reaching the West’s top six, something San Antonio last did in 2019 — remarkably, the NBA’s second-longest active playoff drought after the lowly Charlotte Hornets.
— Kevin Pelton
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