Gregg Popovich Not Expected To Return To Spurs This Season; Future Uncertain

[RealGM Wiretap]

San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich is not expected to return to the team this season. In addition, Popovich's future with the team is uncertain after he suffered a stroke in November.

Mitch Johnson has filled in for Popovich since November. The Spurs are 24-30 on the season and recently found out that star big man Victor Wembanyama will miss the remainder of the season due to a blood clot issue in his shoulder.

Popovich has been the Spurs head coach since taking over in in 1996. Popovich has led San Antonio to five championships and 22 playoff appearances in 29 seasons.

Via Shams Charania/ESPN

[elmdawgg69]

He should’ve been fired after the Kawhi debacle. The Spurs have been complete garbage for seven years now. Any other coach would’ve been fired a long time ago.

[pushfloater]

He should’ve been fired after the Kawhi debacle. The Spurs have been complete garbage for seven years now. Any other coach would’ve been fired a long time ago.

He built enough equity that it’s not even a question

[Clay Davis]

He should’ve been fired after the Kawhi debacle. The Spurs have been complete garbage for seven years now. Any other coach would’ve been fired a long time ago.

Him and Kawhi are on good terms. He has good rizz with Kawhi, actually. It's clear that the problem was between Kawhi and the front-office/medical staff, and perhaps with teammates like Tony Parker, who publicly questioned the gravity of his health concerns. A total benchod move, that.

[ConstableChaos]

smart to stay away from the team, wouldnt want to catch a blood clot from wemby

[CIN-C-STAR]

He should’ve been fired after the Kawhi debacle. The Spurs have been complete garbage for seven years now. Any other coach would’ve been fired a long time ago.

Him and Kawhi are on good terms. He has good rizz with Kawhi, actually. It's clear that the problem was between Kawhi and the front-office/medical staff, and perhaps with teammates like Tony Parker, who publicly questioned the gravity of his health concerns. A total benchod move, that.

It’s pretty obvious that Kawhi’s uncle blamed the small market, boring Spurs for Kawhi not getting endorsement money commensurate with his on-court ability, instead of recognizing that Kawhi has the personality of wet cardboard, and wanted to get him to a bigger market.
Kawhi, for his part, wanted to go back home to LA.
And the injury became the perfect excuse to get what they wanted.
It’s very clear in hindsight that the Spurs medical team nailed the diagnosis, and the Spurs management plan was no different than what was tried in Toronto and LA (likely better).
The divorce with the Spurs was all about money and that’s fine, but why people keep trying to use it to disparage the Spurs when the facts clearly show otherwise I don’t know.

[Rek]

It’s pretty obvious that Kawhi’s uncle blamed the small market, boring Spurs for Kawhi not getting endorsement money commensurate with his on-court ability, instead of recognizing that Kawhi has the personality of wet cardboard, and wanted to get him to a bigger market.
Kawhi, for his part, wanted to go back home to LA.
And the injury became the perfect excuse to get what they wanted.
It’s very clear in hindsight that the Spurs medical team nailed the diagnosis, and the Spurs management plan was no different than what was tried in Toronto and LA (likely better).
The divorce with the Spurs was all about money and that’s fine, but why people keep trying to use it to disparage the Spurs when the facts clearly show otherwise I don’t know.

Spot on. They went out of their way to paint the Spurs org as some sort of anti-player-health establishment. Yet, if that were true on any level, there would be a swath of former players with career-threatening injuries due to poor diagnosis and mismanaged recoveries. That has never been the case.

It's never good to see athletes, especially stars, become diminished versions of themselves due to significant injuries. But, when they try to place blame on people who had nothing to do with it, that doesn't make it any better and only creates animosity and division.

[Sixteen]

this guy must hate his wife

[Roy T]

this guy must hate his wife

This is disgusting. I hope you feel shame and remorse one day.

[HotelVitale]

He should’ve been fired after the Kawhi debacle. The Spurs have been complete garbage for seven years now. Any other coach would’ve been fired a long time ago.

He built enough equity that it’s not even a question

He also did a pretty great job with crappy rosters for years. His post Kawhi teams won almost 50 games for a few years with like Bryn Forbes as their third best player, and even after they bombed out the team were flirting with .500 for like 3 years despite having g-league rosters.

You can’t really mess with the Pop Spurs for having elite discipline and training etc. Just a question of when and how that’s ideal, and it maybe hasn’t been that useful for the post Kawhi build.

[Pickled Prunes]

He should’ve been fired after the Kawhi debacle. The Spurs have been complete garbage for seven years now. Any other coach would’ve been fired a long time ago.

He built enough equity that it’s not even a question

He also did a pretty great job with crappy rosters for years. His post Kawhi teams won almost 50 games for a few years with like Bryn Forbes as their third best player, and even after they bombed out the team were flirting with .500 for like 3 years despite having g-league rosters.

You can’t really mess with the Pop Spurs for having elite discipline and training etc. Just a question of when and how that’s ideal, and it maybe hasn’t been that useful for the post Kawhi build.

The "Kawhi debacle" was not a Pop issue, it was a Kawhi issue. It continues to be an issue 7 seasons after the two parted ways. But even if it hadn't, and Kawhi had player every minute of every game since, Pop has coached 100's of players before and after. Nobody's life work can be reduced to their relationship with one co-worker.

[Sixteen]

this guy must hate his wife

This is disgusting. I hope you feel shame and remorse one day.

lmao. it's just a joke dude

[Sixteen]

this guy must hate his wife

This is disgusting. I hope you feel shame and remorse one day.

and to be clear, I meant the fact that he's still coaching at this age, not the fact that he had a stroke. I feel like that should be obvious. But you probably knew that, you just wanted to feel self righteous

[tigerae]

this guy must hate his wife

This is disgusting. I hope you feel shame and remorse one day.

and to be clear, I meant the fact that he's still coaching at this age, not the fact that he had a stroke. I feel like that should be obvious. But you probably knew that, you just wanted to feel self righteous

If you don't know Pops history maybe don't post anything dumb without actually googling. His wife past away a few years ago due to an illness of some sort. He was contemplating retirement back then to spend more time with her before he passed away.

[Roy T]

this guy must hate his wife

This is disgusting. I hope you feel shame and remorse one day.

lmao. it's just a joke dude

Why are you joking about his deceased wife? Stfu and get outta here.

[DoItALL9]

The Spurs should bring in Bob Hill to replace him.

[DoItALL9]

It’s pretty obvious that Kawhi’s uncle blamed the small market, boring Spurs for Kawhi not getting endorsement money commensurate with his on-court ability, instead of recognizing that Kawhi has the personality of wet cardboard, and wanted to get him to a bigger market.
Kawhi, for his part, wanted to go back home to LA.
And the injury became the perfect excuse to get what they wanted.
It’s very clear in hindsight that the Spurs medical team nailed the diagnosis, and the Spurs management plan was no different than what was tried in Toronto and LA (likely better).
The divorce with the Spurs was all about money and that’s fine, but why people keep trying to use it to disparage the Spurs when the facts clearly show otherwise I don’t know.

Spot on. They went out of their way to paint the Spurs org as some sort of anti-player-health establishment. Yet, if that were true on any level, there would be a swath of former players with career-threatening injuries due to poor diagnosis and mismanaged recoveries. That has never been the case.

It's never good to see athletes, especially stars, become diminished versions of themselves due to significant injuries. But, when they try to place blame on people who had nothing to do with it, that doesn't make it any better and only creates animosity and division.

Was Tony Parker telling him that he should be playing with the blessing of the medical staff?

[Rek]

It’s pretty obvious that Kawhi’s uncle blamed the small market, boring Spurs for Kawhi not getting endorsement money commensurate with his on-court ability, instead of recognizing that Kawhi has the personality of wet cardboard, and wanted to get him to a bigger market.
Kawhi, for his part, wanted to go back home to LA.
And the injury became the perfect excuse to get what they wanted.
It’s very clear in hindsight that the Spurs medical team nailed the diagnosis, and the Spurs management plan was no different than what was tried in Toronto and LA (likely better).
The divorce with the Spurs was all about money and that’s fine, but why people keep trying to use it to disparage the Spurs when the facts clearly show otherwise I don’t know.

Spot on. They went out of their way to paint the Spurs org as some sort of anti-player-health establishment. Yet, if that were true on any level, there would be a swath of former players with career-threatening injuries due to poor diagnosis and mismanaged recoveries. That has never been the case.

It's never good to see athletes, especially stars, become diminished versions of themselves due to significant injuries. But, when they try to place blame on people who had nothing to do with it, that doesn't make it any better and only creates animosity and division.

Was Tony Parker telling him that he should be playing with the blessing of the medical staff?

Last time I checked, Parker wasn't a member of the FO, coaching staff, or the medical team.

[Rek]

this guy must hate his wife

This is disgusting. I hope you feel shame and remorse one day.

lmao. it's just a joke dude

You're just a natural comedian...

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/23236973/erin-popovich-wife-san-antonio-spurs-coach-gregg-popovich-dies-wednesday

[DoItALL9]

Spot on. They went out of their way to paint the Spurs org as some sort of anti-player-health establishment. Yet, if that were true on any level, there would be a swath of former players with career-threatening injuries due to poor diagnosis and mismanaged recoveries. That has never been the case.

It's never good to see athletes, especially stars, become diminished versions of themselves due to significant injuries. But, when they try to place blame on people who had nothing to do with it, that doesn't make it any better and only creates animosity and division.

Was Tony Parker telling him that he should be playing with the blessing of the medical staff?

Last time I checked, Parker wasn't a member of the FO, coaching staff, or the medical team.

They didn't publicly contradict Tony Parker. They didn't come out and support Kawhi either. Believe what you will.