Gregg Popovich, the 75-year-old coach of the San Antonio Spurs, who sat out his team’s win Saturday night due to an undisclosed health condition, will not join the team on its two-game road trip to Los Angeles and Houston, the team announced.
Assistant coach Mitch Johnson has moved into the head coach’s seat in the interim (which could potentially be longer than just these next two games). Johnson played down the seriousness of the situation before the Minnesota game, via Tom Osborn at the Express News.
“He’s not feeling well. This has happened before. I think everybody always has to be ready for the next man. We’ve had that with injuries and sometimes people get sick or not feeling well or things come up in life. . He’s just not feeling well. good.”
Under Johnson, the Spurs beat the Timberwolves to improve to 3-3 during the young season.
Popovich is a coaching legend and Hall of Famer. He led the Spurs for 29 years, is a five-time NBA champion and coach of the USA gold medal team at the Tokyo Olympics, and is the NBA’s career leader in coaching wins with 1,390 (plus another 170 in the playoffs). His training tree casts a massive shadow across the NBA, including Steve Kerr (Warriors), Mike Budenholzer (Suns), Ime Udoka (Rockets), Taylor Jenkins (Grizzlies), Mike Brown (Suns), and many others learned from the master. .
