Gregg Popovich

Gregg Popovich

Popovich in March 2011, during his tenure with the San Antonio Spurs.
San Antonio Spurs
Position	Head coach
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 (NCAA I) (assistant)
1979–1987	Pomona-Pitzer (NCAA III)
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) 5× Western Conference champion (1999, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2013) 3× NBA All-Star Game head coach (2005, 2011, 2013) 2× NBA Coach of the Year (2003, 2012) One of only two head coaches with 900 victories with one team

Gregg Charles 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".^[1][2] He has won four NBA championships as the head coach of the Spurs.

Early life and education

Popovich was born in East Chicago, Indiana on January 28, 1949, to a Serbian father and Croatian mother.^[3] 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.^[4]

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.

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 U.S. Air Force Academy to receive the Academy's award of Distinguished Graduate. Despite his four NBA titles, Popovich said the award possibly was the most meaningful award he had ever received.^[5]

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.^[6] 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 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 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 three more championships with the Spurs--2003, 2005 and 2007. Popovich was named NBA Coach of the Year 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.^[7]

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."^[8] 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.^[9] 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."^[10]

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.

International basketball

Popovich served on the coaching staff for the U.S. national team in the 2002 FIBA World Championship (assisting George Karl),^[11] 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

Personal life

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, 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

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gregg Popovich.

External links

• NBA.com profile
• Profile as a coach