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The San Antonio Spurs as we know them don't exist without coach Gregg Popovich. Tim Duncan is their greatest player. George Gervin was their first superstar. David Robinson saved the franchise. Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker helped define one of the greatest runs sports has ever seen. Victor Wembanyama is their face now. Save for Gervin's playing days, all of them exist under Pop's umbrella.
The five NBA championships, his status as the winningest coach in league history, the sustained excellence, his Olympic Gold medal, and his place in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame are why Gregg Popovich enters any conversation of the greatest coaches ever in sports.
In guiding the Spurs to a NBA record-equaling 22 straight playoff appearances that started with Tim Duncan's rookie season and culminated with a team led by DeMar DeRozan and LaMarcus Aldridge, Pop did more than instill a culture. He created an existence – an approach predicated on selfless ideals practiced as the Spurs won at the highest levels through three decades.
Congratulations to Spurs legend Gregg Popovich on an illustrious career 🙌
1,422 regular season wins (NBA record)
170 playoff wins (3rd all-time)
22 consecutive playoff appearances (NBA record)
5x NBA Champion
3x NBA Coach of the Year
Olympic Gold Medalist
Basketball Hall of… pic.twitter.com/ZnErWUokvd— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) May 2, 2025
Gregg Popovich's legacy behind the milestones
There is a framed plaque that lives in the Spurs locker room. “Lives,” the fitting verb because it permeates through the Spurs' ethos. Attributed to social reformer Jacob Riis, it reads:
“When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that last blow that did it, but all that had gone before.”
It's the foundation on which the “Spurs way” sits.
For 25 years, fans in San Antonio waited until next year. Popovich was there for eight of them as an assistant coach and general manager.
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Come 1999, in Popovich's third season as head coach and Duncan's second with the team, “next year” became when the Spurs would win their next championship. After four titles in eight years (nine seasons), the Silver and Black added another in 2014. All with Pop.
While Duncan was there the entire time, no other player was.
In between, as much as the Spurs excelled because of Robinson, Ginobili, Parker, and Kawhi Leonard, their success also hinged on other pieces and a team-wide mentality.
Popovich often said that his biggest stars “got over themselves.” If that proved the first step, the willingness of those around the best players to focus on specific details enabled the Silver and Black to win. And Win. And Win. And win. And win.
The Spurs made another Finals appearance and reached the conference championship round four times outside of their five titles.
It's success that came because champions named Mario Elie, Steve Kerr, and Robert Horry, who'd won rings elsewhere, bought in. Its success that came because veterans named Sean Elliott, Jerome Kersey, Bruce Bowen, Kevin Willis, Brent Barry, and Michael Finley gave San Antonio a shot. Its success that came because players named Malik Rose, Stephen Jackson, Fabricio Oberto, and Patty Mills excelled in roles.
It's success that all came under Gregg Popovich.
