On Monday, the San Antonio Spurs beat the Detroit Pistons 119-107. This win gave Popovich a total of 1,221 wins in his career, which tied former coach Jerry Sloan for most wins as a coach.
Gregg Popovich is one of the best coaches in NBA history. In fact, he’s led the San Antonio Spurs to five NBA championships in the 1999, 2003 ,2005, 2007 and 2014 seasons. Popovich started his NBA head coaching career with the San Antonio Spurs. At first, Popovich was an assistant for the Spurs. He was an assistant from 1988 to 1992. Then, he became the head coach in 1996 and has coached the Spurs ever since. He coached players such as David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Manu Ginóbili, Tony Parker and Kawhi Leonard. Popovich has accomplished many things in his career and he added another accomplishment on Monday.
Gregg Popovich with Tim Duncan (Getty Images)
Jerry Sloan was the head coach of the Chicago Bulls and the Utah Jazz, who was an assistant coach for both teams before becoming the head coach. Sloan coached the Bulls from 1979 to 1982 and coached the Utah Jazz from 1988 to 2011. Sloan was a Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee in 2009. Sloan was third in most wins as a coach with 1,221 and now Popovich is tied with Sloan for third. The Spurs’ next game is tonight against the Memphis Grizzlies, which will be his Popovich’s first chance to be in third all by himself.
The only coaches to win more are Nelson and Wilkens. Nelson has 1,335 wins and Wilkens has 1,332. Popovich may not reach them, but he’ll get closer to them. However, he does have more wins than coaches such as Pat Riley (1,210), George Karl (1,175) and Phil Jackson (1,155). Popovich has also won Coach of the Year three times in his career. Overall, Popovich has accomplished a lot and this is one of many. If Pop wasn’t already future Hall-of-Famer (he is) this accomplishment makes the argument stronger.
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