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VanVleet also used the same platform to praise Rockets head coach Ime Udoka, drawing a direct line to his coaching roots under Gregg Popovich, Basketball Network reports. “He gets credit for the stern face and holding guys accountable,” VanVleet said. “But I really just call him the black Pop. He came up under Pop.”
Patty Mills: First day of preparing for the 2014 NBA finals: LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, and the Miami Heat. So I get to practice. You can't believe how intense this feeling is to be like, "We're back. All right, everyone, lock in." That's the feeling as you're driving the practice. Keeping it light but not too joking around. The clock is counting down before it goes off, and then we start, and sure enough, it goes off, and one of the coaches says, "All right, everyone in the film room, we're starting in the film room," which was probably understandable. So we all go into the film room, and I sit in the second row in the middle, Manu Ginobili behind me, always kicking me in the head or slapping my knee or playing some sort of game. But then we sat. So here we are, and you can feel the like the not tension in the room, but you could just feel like, all right, you know, what's the game plan here? You know, we're going to get this thing done. And Pops is at his table in front of the whiteboard and the TV, and he's looking down at the palm cards that he always has, and he looks up, and he looks at all of us, and he says, "Uh, do you know who does anyone in here know who Eddie Mabo is?" And straight away, like I got a lump in my throat, and I can only imagine what my face looked like, but I was just speechless. Is he asking everyone in the room who Eddie Mabo is? Eddie Mabo, in my culture, is a very significant person, and you put him up there with Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela and those types of people, and what he was able to do in Australian history for indigenous people. He's the one who really put indigenous Australians on the map, and what he was able to do. Overturn the land rights decision. And in my head, I was like, there's no way he's asking this right now. I thought this was going to be about LeBron James and the Miami Heat.
Richard Jefferson: Players can get coaches fired in the NBA. If you allow that humility as the best player, it forces everyone else to fall in line. Pop knew. Pop would cuss Tim Duncan out first and then go down the line. Tim would just be like: “You’re right.” So what was I or anyone else going to say? His leadership style was that he allowed himself to be coached the hardest. That will always impress me. Tim received that day in and day out because he wanted greatness for himself and he wanted greatness for his teammates. That’s true selflessness.
It is under this culture that Tuomas Iisalo and Tiago Splitter, who played under one of the best NBA coaches of all time in Gregg Popovich while at the San Antonio Spurs, thrived. “Iisalo is a basketball geek who likes to implement stuff from the outside, follows basketball, and tries to generate new ideas. Super creative,” said Thomas. “And Splitter is a very caring and warm person, just super nice to be around. He really connects well with the players on an interpersonal level.”
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But the Spurs offer, when it came, was too good to refuse: $7 an hour, minimum wage in Texas. “Dude, it was tough,” he says. But Saleh jumped at it and, over four years in San Antonio, was exposed to nearly every aspect of the organization. Most importantly, he had the chance to work alongside the likes of RC Buford and Gregg Popovich, the legendary management and coaching tandem that had led the Spurs to four of their five NBA titles. “RC Buford and Pop were amazing mentors of mine,” Saleh says. “They were phenomenal in my growth and development and then, after (four) years there, the Warriors ended up hitting me up. I didn’t think I was going to leave San Antonio, but 15 minutes in a room with (then Warriors president) Bob Myers sold me.”
“(Gregg Popovich) was definitely a pioneer in that regard,” Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr said prior to Thursday’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks. “And he was coaching a team that was making deep playoff runs, almost every year. And he recognized the toll on these guys as the game was speeding up. So I think Pop definitely kind of popularized the idea of the rest and the benefits.”
The San Antonio Spurs have unveiled a banner celebrating Gregg Popovich. Fittingly, they did it quietly. The Spurs were playing their home opener on Sunday, when fans saw the new banner for the first time. There was no public ceremony when the banner was hoisted, a clear indicator that Popovich did not want any lavish celebration.
The new banner simply reads “Pop 1,390.” The 1,390 represents Popovich’s NBA-record regular-season win total with the team. It is a slightly different design than the others, which are shaped as jerseys. Popovich’s banner has five stars along the top — the Spurs won five NBA championships with him as coach — and the team logo.
Former coach Gregg Popovich would never let the Spurs do a ceremony honoring his contributions to the franchise and the city of San Antonio. So the Spurs did the next best thing: pic.twitter.com/QaxgzHrjgT
— Michael C. Wright (@mikecwright) October 26, 2025
Midway through the 2023-24 campaign, then-coach Gregg Popovich shifted Johnson to the second unit, hoping the 6-5 forward’s relentless energy could bring a scoring spark to the reserve group. Johnson’s statistics have understandably decreased since the change, even as his skill level and craftiness around the basket has undeniably gone up. “Being here seven years, one thing I’ve noticed is you get what you put into it,” Johnson said. “If you buy into this culture, you will get a lot out of it. If you don’t, it’s hard. That’s what I share with everybody. It may not be aesthetically pleasing to everybody, but they have a plan for you. I’m living testament to that.”
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Gregg Popovich is here at Spurs shootaround watching Victor Wembanyama get shots up. pic.twitter.com/EAjXFdNnWJ
— Jared Weiss (@JaredWeissNBA) October 6, 2025
Popovich, who remains team president, suffered a stroke at the Frost Bank Center before a game on Nov. 2, just five outings into the 2024-25 season, his 29th as coach. Former Spurs assistant Mitch Johnson is in his first season as coach after guiding the club as acting coach for its final 77 games last season. "I think about him a lot," the Spurs coach said. "I talk to him also, so he's still sharing his mentorship and ideas and thoughts and advice."
Tony Parker: When I stepped onto the court, it reminded me of my basketball camps when I was in Fécamp. Last October, after my first discussion with Pop (Gregg Popovich, his coach at the Spurs between 2001 and 2018) , I felt this strong desire. I asked him for advice, the Spurs opened the doors to me in January, February, March, where I was able to observe everything over seven or ten days. Then, I had a long discussion with Zizou (Zinédine Zidane) and Titi (Thierry Henry), who convinced me to do the DES. Because in itself, I don't need it to coach in the NBA. And my dream is to coach in the NBA. But I said to myself, why not go back to school (smile) ! This year, I'm going to take the DES. I hope I'll pass it in May, and then start a coaching career.
“I’m well aware that the reason I’m still here is because Steph Curry is still here,” Kerr said on a recent episode of the "Glue Guys Podcast." “And I’m not being modest, I’m just telling the truth. Gregg Popovich is one of my best friends and mentors, and every time we sit down for dinner, he holds up his wine glass and he says, 'Here's to Tim Duncan.' "And everyone toasts to Tim Duncan. I love it because it's genuine and he's basically telling us the only reason I -- and we -- are all here is because the lottery fell our way, we got Tim Duncan. Other people didn't. That's how I feel about Steph."