Head coach Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs seems to be on towards the Houston Rockets through the first half of a preseason recreation at Toyota Heart on October 17, 2024 in Houston, Texas (Getty Photographs through AFP)
Gregg Popovich won’t coach this season. He isn’t ruling out a comeback sooner or later.
Popovich met with the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday, releasing a press release afterward to make his choice on this season — and hope for subsequent season — public.
The 76-year-old Popovich, the NBA’s all-time teaching wins chief, had a stroke on the workforce’s area in San Antonio on Nov. 2 and has been away from the workforce since.
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“I’ve determined to not return to the sidelines this season,” Popovich mentioned in a press release distributed by the workforce. “(Appearing coach) Mitch Johnson and his workers have finished an exquisite job and the resolve and professionalism the gamers have proven, sticking collectively throughout a difficult season, has been excellent.”
Popovich has been in common contact with Johnson, some workforce officers and has talked with some gamers at instances throughout his absence — however he has not been seen at video games or been identified to be at any practices because the stroke occurred.
“I’ll proceed to deal with my well being with the hope that I can return to teaching sooner or later,” Popovich mentioned.
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Popovich’s go to to the workforce got here per week after the Spurs introduced that All-Star middle Victor Wembanyama — the defensive participant of the 12 months favourite on the time and somebody who was a critical candidate to make the All-NBA workforce — won’t play once more this season after deep vein thrombosis, or a blood clot, was present in his proper shoulder.
The Spurs haven’t up to date Popovich’s rehabilitation course of in a while, aside from saying that he’s anticipated to make a full restoration. The workforce has not revealed what, if any, points Popovich has been coping with because the stroke.
Popovich agreed to a five-year contract extension with the workforce in 2023, one that may have him signed to be on the sideline by means of the 2027-28 season. His solely public remark previous to Thursday about his well being and his future got here in mid-December, when he mentioned he and his household had been overwhelmed by “the outpouring of assist we’ve obtained throughout this time.”
Popovich talked about returning to teaching in that assertion, however didn’t reveal any timetable in a self-deprecating quip. “Nobody is extra excited to see me return to the bench than the gifted people who’ve been main my rehabilitation course of,” Popovich mentioned within the December assertion. “They’ve rapidly discovered that I’m lower than coachable.”
