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Gregg Popovich is the longest-tenured head coach in the NBA currently. He's been in charge of the San Antonio Spurs since 1996. He led the Spurs to five NBA championships and has also won one Olympic gold medal with Team USA.
Popovich started his coaching career as an assistant at Air Force before taking over Pomona-Pitzer's basketball program. He began his NBA career as an assistant in San Antonio from 1988 to 1992. After a brief stint with the Golden State Warriors, he returned to the Spurs in 1994 to serve as general manager and vice president of basketball operations.
The soon-to-be Hall of Famer named himself as head coach after a rough start to the 1996-97 NBA season. The Spurs finished with the worst record in the league that season, but that got them the first overall pick in the 1997 NBA draft.
The San Antonio Spurs then drafted Tim Duncan with the No. 1 pick in the 1997 draft. Duncan led the Spurs to their first championship two years later, teaming up with David Robinson to win again in 2003.
Duncan's partnership with Gregg Popovich would lead to five NBA titles, including 2005, 2007 and 2014. Popovich cemented himself as one of the greatest head coaches in NBA history.
However, Duncan and Robinson were not the only Hall of Fame players he had on his team over the years. Manu Ginobili was inducted into the Hall of Fame last year, while Tony Parker will get in alongside Popovich later this year. Kawhi Leonard, who was the Finals MVP in 2014, is a future Hall of Famer, too.
Gregg Popovich's accolades and accomplishments
Apart from NBA championships with the San Antonio Spurs, Popovich is also the winningest coach in league history. He has a regular season record of 1,366 wins against 761 losses and also has 170 postseason wins.
The 74-year-old coach is a three-time Coach of the Year (2003, 2012 and 2014) He was also named among the 15 greatest coaches in NBA history as part of the league's 75th-anniversary celebrations.
Gregg Popovich took charge of Team USA after the 2016 Rio Olympics. He lead them to the gold medal in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, coaching players like Kevin Durant, Damian Lillard and Draymond Green.
