Latest news with #CoachPop
USA Today
10-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
LeBron James pays his respects to retiring head coach Gregg Popovich
LeBron James pays his respects to retiring head coach Gregg Popovich Gregg Popovich recently announced his retirement from coaching after he had been the San Antonio Spurs' head coach since the 1996-97 season. He guided the organization to five NBA championships despite a constant state of roster evolution, and he was the longest-tenured coach in the league. Popovich suffered a stroke earlier this season, which forced him to step away. On a recent episode of his "Mind the Game" podcast, LeBron James paid his respects to Popovich, who is one of basketball's greatest coaches ever. 'There's no way we even start this conversation without talking about Pop and what he means for the game and obviously for the NBA, San Antonio, West Point, all the stops that he had. To be able to cross paths -- we've crossed paths with Coach Pop so many times and I had one opportunity to actually play for him in the Olympics in 2004. And obviously going against him three times in the NBA Finals. What can you say? You talk about the superlatives when it comes to Coach Pop, his list is out of this world. But I think what a lot of people have found out if you ever got an opportunity to encounter a one-on-one with him or even just in crossing, how great of a [expletive] guy that guy is. And it makes sense with how unbelievable of a coach he was because of the person he was.' James' teams played against Popovich's Spurs in the NBA Finals three times, with the Spurs emerging victorious in two of those series. The superstar also played for Popovich when Popovich was an assistant to head coach Larry Brown for Team USA men's basketball during the 2004 Olympics. 'It was just the admiration. For me, I was just an 18-year-old kid and I got an opportunity to see it when they won a championship in '99 and then when they won it again I believe in 2003. So I already had admiration for Pop and his San Antonio teams. I was on the team, I was a young guy alongside Carmelo Anthony, we were young guys, Dwyane Wade, we were super young and to be a part of that team, obviously we didn't succeed like we wanted to succeed. But to be on a team with like Allen Iverson and Tim Duncan and Coach Pop, Larry Brown, that was just like another welcome to what greatness is all about. To see what Coach Pop has left this game as far as controlling the sidelines for as long as he did and the amount of wins that you just mentioned, the amount of championships, great players that he's seen come through the San Antonio franchise. It's just been a complete honor and for me to have a real personal relationship with him that every time I see him, it's just so much respect and so much honor. He definitely will be missed… Obviously we know health is most important, but we cannot shy away from the fact of what he was able to accomplish on the sidelines.' Mitch Johnson, who had been a Spurs assistant since the 2019-20 season, will now be the team's head coach moving forward. He filled in for Popovich starting in early November after the latter suffered a stroke, and he will now have a very promising team that includes star guard De'Aaron Fox, Rookie of the Year Stephon Castle and, of course, 21-year-old superstar center Victor Wembanyama.
Indian Express
04-05-2025
- Sport
- Indian Express
‘Nobody's happy' & other Coach Pop 3-pointers: Unforgettable quotes from NBA ultimate coach, Gregg Popovich, who stepped down after 28 years
NBA's widely adored coach Gregg Popovich stepped down this week from his head coach duties of San Antonio Spurs. The 76-year-old had suffered a stroke last November but has returned in capacity of president of basketball operations, while Mitch Johnson takes over. Popovic or Coach Pop was a formidable figure on the sidelines with his booming instructions for close to 28 years. Never a fan of sideline interviews, he nevertheless always dispensed pearls whenever he spoke. An adored figure (Shaquille O'Neal said he loved him forever yesterday), Coach Pop would blurt out cutting stuff to all and sundry before truth bombs even got invented in media. Never unkind, even journalists whose questions annoyed him, became his greatest fans. Here's three famous things uttered by Coach Pop: 'Nobody's happy' Former TNT reporter David Aldridge thought he was asking Popovich a routine question, in the routine manner of asking. Aldridge asked him if he was happy with his team's shot selection during a game in 2012. Popovich took off: 'Happy? Happy's not a word that we think about in a game. Think of something different. Happy? I don't know how to judge happy. We're in the middle of a contest. Nobody's happy.' 'Now ask me couple of inane questions' Popovich's dislike for pesky media bytes was well known and he never spared late TNT reporter Craig Sager, whose colorful outfits once got Coach Pop to remark, 'How can you be that professional in a suit that looks like that?' Sager was diagnosed with leukaemia and died in 2016, and when he returned to NBA in 2015, Popovich showed his warm side of personality. 'I got to honestly tell you this is the first time I've enjoyed doing this ridiculous interview we're required to do. It's because you're here and you're back with us. Welcome back, baby. … Now ask me a couple of inane questions.' 'I want some nasty!' Popovich who has the most wins by any coach in NBA history (1996 to 2025), and won the league 5 times and gold for USA at Tokyo Olympics, at times had basketball's equivalent of hair-dryer scoldings for his players. Popovich also won his first title in 1999. A Spurs timeout in 2012 playoffs against Oklahoma City Thunder is legendary, for the Chicago-born's tirade. Trailing at halftime, he would launch into one in the huddle. 'I want a little but dose of nasty. I'm seeing a little bit unconfident, a little hesitation. It's not supposed to be easy. I want some nasty.'
