THE 10 GREATEST SAN ANTONIO SPURS OF ALL-TIME

 

TONY PARKER'S FATHER, TONY PARKER SR, HAS PASSED AWAY AT AGE 70

BREAKING: Tony Parker Sr., the former Loyola University standout, professional overseas basketball player, & father of NBA legend Tony Parker, has passed away at age 70. 

Parker Sr. passed away at his son’s home. 

GREGG POPOVICH ENDS LEGENDARY COACHING CAREER AFTER 29 SEASONS

The NBA's all-time winningest coach will transition to the role of Spurs president of basketball operations.

Gregg Popovich, the NBA’s all-time winningest coach, amassed 1,422 wins as head coach of the Spurs.

Gregg Popovich stepped down as coach of the San Antonio Spurs on Friday, ending a three-decade run that saw him lead the team to five NBA championships, become the league’s all-time wins leader and earn induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

“While my love and passion for the game remain, I’ve decided it’s time to step away as head coach,” Popovich said.

He will transition to team president. Mitch Johnson, a Spurs assistant who filled in for Popovich for the season’s final 77 games, becomes the team’s coach.

Popovich, 76, missed all but five games this season after having a stroke at the team’s arena on Nov. 2. He has not spoken publicly since, though he had addressed his team at least once and released a statement in late March saying that he hoped to return to coaching.

That won’t be happening.

“I’m forever grateful to the wonderful players, coaches, staff and fans who allowed me to serve them as the Spurs head coach and am excited for the opportunity to continue to support the organization, community and city that are so meaningful to me,” Popovich said.

Popovich’s career ends with a record of 1,422-869, which does include the 77 games — 32 wins and 45 losses — that were coached by Johnson this season. He also won 170 playoff games with the Spurs, the most by any coach with any one team and the third-most overall behind only Phil Jackson’s 229 and Pat Riley’s 171.

“The best there ever was,” Spurs great Manu Ginobili said last year of Popovich.

Popovich was a three-time NBA Coach of the Year, led the U.S. to a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics and coached six Hall of Famers in San Antonio — Ginobili, David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Dominique Wilkins and Pau Gasol. He went up against 170 different coaches during his time in the NBA and there have been 303 coaching changes made in the league, including interim moves, during the Popovich era.

“I’ve got a video on my phone that’s, like, priceless,” said Chris Paul, who played for the Spurs this past season — going there, in large part, because of the lure of playing for Popovich. “It was us in Oklahoma City, before shootaround, and Pop is doing ballhandling stuff. All these years I’ve always seen Pop coaching in a suit, but I didn’t know how hard of a worker he was when it comes to training.”

That work ethic, Paul said, carried over into this year after the stroke and Popovich’s commitment to his rehabilitation process.

“I was the first one to get to the arena for games, and I would walk past the training room and Pop would be on the treadmill,” Paul said. “I actually had a chance to be in there while Pop is doing rehab or whatnot. So, to see how hard he works, that’s what I’m glad I got a chance to see. It had nothing to do with basketball. It just showed who he is.”

Popovich, in his role as general manager of the Spurs, made the move to fire coach Bob Hill and promote himself into that job on Dec. 10, 1996. The timing seemed, at best, awkward. The Spurs were 3-15 at that point, having played all 18 of those games without Robinson, who was just about to come back from injury. Popovich took over on the day that Robinson returned to the lineup.

“A change in direction was necessary,” Popovich said that day.

The Spurs hadn’t changed direction again since.

“Coach Pop’s extraordinary impact on our family, San Antonio, the Spurs and the game of basketball is profound,” Spurs managing partner Peter J. Holt said. “His accolades and awards don’t do justice to the impact he has had on so many people. He is truly one-of-one as a person, leader and coach. Our entire family, alongside fans from across the globe, are grateful for his remarkable 29-year run as the head coach of the San Antonio Spurs.”

The fortunes changed — Duncan was picked No. 1 overall in the 1997 Draft — but the direction under Popovich always stayed the same. The first championship came in 1999; others followed in 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014. In his first 22 seasons as coach, the Spurs had 22 winning records, the first 20 of those seasons winning at least 60% of the time.

His decision to step away now comes with the Spurs having just completed the second year of a rebuild around French star Victor Wembanyama, who arrived touted as the next San Antonio great and has done nothing to suggest he won’t live up to that billing.

Popovich played at the U.S. Air Force Academy, famously wasn’t picked in a bid to make the 1972 U.S. Olympic team — some still say he merited a spot on that team — and wound up becoming a coach who might have been perfectly content to run Pomona-Pitzer, a Division III program in California, for the entirety of his professional life. That school had lost 88 consecutive conference games when he arrived; it didn’t take long for Popovich to deliver a conference championship.

Eventually, the NBA called. In time, Popovich would be paired with Robinson, then the patriarch of a dynasty fueled by Duncan, Parker and Ginobili. And out of that, Popovich put together a career like none other.

“Everyone knows the amazing job he’s done and all the accomplishments,” longtime coach Larry Brown said in 2021. “I wish more people really could know the type of person that he is.”

He was famously grumpy, liked to clash with reporters, rarely offered any details of his basketball or private life other than what was necessary. It was simultaneously real and an act; Popovich has a much softer side as well — he quietly championed causes like the San Antonio Food Bank for years and wasn’t afraid to make his political views known. And those lucky enough to know him find him hilarious.

“He has an amazing sense of humor,” Boston forward Jayson Tatum said while playing for Popovich during the Tokyo Olympics four years ago. “I guess the casual fan sees the person who does those interviews postgame, but that’s not the case of who he is at all. I absolutely love spending time with him.”

A loss in the 2013 NBA Finals crushed Popovich, whose Spurs were in position to close out the Miami Heat in six games, lost Game 6 in overtime after Ray Allen’s 3-pointer with 5.2 seconds remaining in regulation kept the Heat alive, then fell in Game 7. But in the moments after the final horn, as Miami coach Erik Spoelstra embraced his staff, Popovich joined the hug with a wide smile.

"Spoelstra, who became coach of the Heat in 2008, becomes the league’s longest-tenured in his current position.

“He’s always just been an incredible example of class, dignity,” Spoelstra said of Popovich. “To be able to do that after wins or losses, I just think it’s a great example that you can still have class regardless of how the outcome comes during a game.”

When the Spurs beat the Heat for the title in a finals rematch in 2014, it was Spoelstra who felt the sting of losing. And once again, it was Popovich who sent congratulations on a job well done.

“There is no one out there like Pop,” Golden State coach Steve Kerr said.

Popovich’s was a tenure like few others. Popovich coached the Spurs for 29 seasons, a span nearly unmatched in U.S. major pro sports history. Connie Mack managed the Philadelphia Athletics for 50 years, George Halas coached the Chicago Bears for 40 years and John McGraw managed the New York Giants for 31 years. Those three tenures — all wrapping up well over a half-century ago — are the only ones exceeding the length of Popovich’s coaching run with the Spurs; his 29-year era in San Antonio was matched by the Dallas Cowboys’ Tom Landry and the Green Bay Packers’ Curly Lambeau.

“It means I’m old,” Popovich said last year."

Popovich broke a gender barrier of sorts in the league when he hired Becky Hammon as the league’s first female full-time paid assistant coach. Hammon, now coach of the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces, would also become the first female head Summer League coach in the NBA and first female acting head coach when she replaced Popovich for a game in 2020.

“Basketball is basketball,” South Carolina women’s coach Dawn Staley said when asked about Popovich in 2017. “It doesn’t have a gender. It has a mind. It has an approach. It has a willingness. Given the opportunity, women can excel in this game. As you can see. Becky Hammon is doing a great job. You need more people like Coach Popovich to give them opportunities to learn, to grow, and to embrace it. I don’t think he sees gender. I think he sees someone that has a great basketball mind, that’s tireless. Once you’re given that opportunity, you see great things come out of it.”

Popovich spoke about wine whenever he could and offered his views on politics and current events but rarely offered much insight into coaching decisions or personnel matters. It was almost military-like secrecy, which made sense given that Popovich was a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy and was an expert on, among other things, the rise and fall of the Soviet Union.

His love of country led to him taking a small side job during his San Antonio tenure — that being coaching USA Basketball for the 2019 World Cup and the Tokyo Olympics two years later. His World Cup team finished seventh, the worst placing ever for a U.S. team with NBA players. His Olympic team won gold.

“It’s impossible to separate it if you have been in the military,” Popovich said when asked about the parallels of being at the Air Force Academy and coaching the country’s national team. “I’ve had classmates that have fought in wars — I have not — and some of them are no longer with us. You get an appreciation for people who have sacrificed. So, when you have an opportunity to do this for your country, it’s impossible to say no. I love being part of it.”

 - NBA.com News Services

 

COLD-BLOODED ASSASSIN | BLACK MAMBA | KOBE BRYANT

 "Maybe the closest to Michael Jordan, who I think is the best ever."

- Tony Parker

Bruce Bowen's All-Time Top 5

1. Michael Jordan

2. Kobe Bryant

3. Bill Russell

4. Magic Johnson

5. Tim Duncan

"To build a team around? Me personally, I would go with Kobe. I wouldn’t go with Tim Duncan.” 

- Stephen Jackson

"Man, how did Kobe learn everything this dude [MJ] did to a T? And then he made it a little better in some areas.” 

- Robert Horry

"[Bryant] could arguably be 1. In some polls, he’ll be 2,” the Nets coach said yesterday about the players he has seen since he entered the NBA in 1988. “He could be 1-A and Jordan can be 1-B or Jordan, some polls they’ll be flipped."

“Fortunately I had a chance to play against both of them and now played and coached against Kobe. And boy, sometimes they’re looking like the same player.”

- Avery Johnson via NY Post

KNICKS' JALEN BRUNSON ACCEPTS $156.5M, $113M LESS THAN '25 DEAL

 In a largely unprecedented financial concession to give roster flexibility to a contending franchise, New York Knicks All-NBA guard Jalen Brunson has agreed to a four-year, $156.5 million contract extension -- $113 million less guaranteed than he is eligible to sign for a year from now -- his agent, Sam Rose of CAA, told ESPN on Friday.

The deal, which begins in 2025-26 and will cost Brunson $37.1 million over the next three years, comes with a fourth-year player option, Rose said, and that would set up Brunson to recoup the $113 million on a four-year, $323 million maximum extension in 2028 or a new five-year, $418 million deal in 2029.

Brunson, 27, became eligible to negotiate and sign the maximum extension Friday.

While there is an inherent risk of injury and unforeseen complications that come with Brunson's decision to push back his most lucrative NBA paydays, his priority remains to maximize the prime of his career with the franchise's most talented and deepest roster since the 1990s.

The repercussions of Brunson choosing the four-year, $156.5 million max deal over the five-year, $269.1 million deal in 2025 are massive for the Knicks' ability to keep this team together and continue making roster moves to close the gap on a championship. Brunson's deal keeps the Knicks out of the second-apron level of the salary cap, a punitive threshold that severely limits a team's ability to make trades, sign players and use draft picks.

Getty Images 

Brunson's study of championship organizations and franchise stars -- Patrick Mahomes' Kansas City Chiefs, the Tom Brady New England Patriots and the Derek Jeter New York Yankees -- gave him a blueprint for MVP-level players who structured contracts to give their teams the best chances at sustainable title runs.

Brunson's arrival to the Knicks on a four-year, $104 million free agent deal two years ago has been one of the league's most transformative acquisitions of the past decade. After starting his career as a backup point guard with the Dallas Mavericks, Brunson has blossomed into one of the NBA's most impactful players and leaders. Brunson had his finest NBA season in 2023-24, earning All-NBA honors and finishing top five in the MVP voting. He averaged 28.7 points per game and scored or assisted on a franchise-record 3,481 points. Brunson, who had 11 40-point games in the regular season, became the first Knicks player with 40 points and five assists in four straight playoff games, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

The Knicks presumably became better -- and inarguably more expensive -- this offseason. New York signed OG Anunoby to a five-year, $212.5 million deal and traded for Brooklyn Nets forward Mikal Bridges and the two years, $48 million left on his contract.

Brunson's ties to the Knicks are deep and reflect his faith in the organization. Knicks president of basketball operations Leon Rose had been Brunson's agent prior to joining the team in 2020. Brunson's father, Rick, is a Knicks assistant coach and was a longtime client of Rose's in his agent days. The Knicks have surrounded Brunson with a starry cast of his former national championship teammates at Villanova to create a remarkable synchronicity on and off the floor.

In the modern era, All-NBA player discounts to allow salary cap flexibility have included San Antonio's Tim Duncan taking $11 million less than the maximum in 2007 to keep Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker and Golden State's Kevin Durant taking $10 million less to keep Shaun Livingston and Andre Iguodala in 2017. LeBron James accepted $2.6 million less on a two-year, $101 million deal this offseason to avoid the second apron for the Los Angeles Lakers.

This time, Brunson is taking a $37 million loss that comes with $113 million of total risk to chase a title with the Knicks.

ESPN's Bobby Marks contributed to this report.

- Adrian Wojnarowski, ESPN

SPURS COACH GREGG POPOVICH CHASTIISES HOME FANS FOR BOOING KAWHI LEONARD AND THE CLIPPERS

AP Photo 

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich grabbed the microphone and chastised the crowd at the Frost Bank Center on Wednesday night, telling fans to stop booing former Spurs All-Star Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers.

“Excuse me for a second,” Popovich said, silencing the crowd late in the first half. “Can we stop all the booing and let these guys play? Have a little class. It’s not who we are. Knock off the booing.”

Leonard had 24 points as the Clippers beat San Antonio 109-102 on Wednesday night, handing the Spurs their 10th straight loss.

“I thought that was an awesome moment, despite the fans booing, I think, even more,” Clippers star Paul George said. “I think that was a hell of a moment, Pop having Kawhi’s back in that situation.”

RAJON RONDO PASSES TONY PARKER ON THE ALL-TIME CAREER ASSIST LIST | NBA