This 12 months’s NBA Finals is a battle of Gregg Popovich proteges, with former participant Steve Kerr on the helm for the Golden State Warriors and former assistant coach, who additionally suited up for Popovich, Ime Udoka main the Boston Celtics.
By month’s finish, a former Popovich participant will win a hoop as a coach. His management is plain.
Earlier than Recreation 1 of the Finals, commissioner Adam Silver sounded off on Popovich’s legacy: “Thanks, Gregg Popovich. He virtually runs an academy there [in San Antonio] for future coaches, and never simply coaches however workforce executives. He is completed a implausible job.”
Popovich is the longest-tenured coach with the identical workforce amongst all of main skilled sports activities’ 122 franchises (NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB). He’s the winningest coach in NBA historical pasttogether with 5 championships (1999, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014), making him one in all three lively coaches within the league with a number of Finals titles.
Popovich’s legacy will be gleaned from his huge and profitable teaching tree. Seven lively NBA head coaches stem from Popovich’s tutelage in San Antonio. Getting into the season, that group included former head coaches Quin Snyder (Utah Jazz) and James Borrego (Charlotte Hornets).
An enormous community of assistant head coaches embrace the Celtics’ Will Hardy, the Brooklyn Nets’ Jacque Vaughn and Atlanta Hawks’ Joe Prunty.
Even two present basic managers — the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder’s Sam Presti and Nets’ Sean Marks — fall within the Popovich rainforest.
Popovich additionally introduced Becky Hammon into the Spurs’ teaching fold, the primary lady to educate a serious American males’s skilled sports activities workforce after he was ejected from a sport in December. Hammon now coaches the Las Vegas Aces within the WNBA, who boasts a league-best 10-2 document.
This is a look at every of the present NBA head coaches who department off the Popovich tree:
Mike Budenholzer, Milwaukee Bucks
Budenholzer labored beneath Popovich as an assistant in San Antonio, the place the Spurs reached the NBA Finals 5 instances (and received 4) between 1996 and 2013. Earlier than touchdown in Milwaukee, Budenholzer served because the Atlanta Hawks’ head coach from 2013-18.
Ime Udoka, Boston Celtics
Udoka performed two seasons for Popovich in San Antonio and served as an assistant coach for the Spurs’ back-to-back Finals appearances in 2013 and 2014.
The primary-year head coach stated his mentor left a “good voicemail” for him after the Celtics made the Finals, however after seeing firsthand how a lot Popovich had been “bothered” by his former assistants through the postseason, Udoka stated he has made a degree to not hound his former coach.
Taylor Jenkins, Memphis Grizzlies
Jenkins, 37, began his NBA profession as an intern within the Spurs’ entrance workplace. By 30, Jenkins had already been named the top coach of the Spurs’ G League affiliate, and took the job as Memphis’ head coach at 34 after working a stint as one in all Budenholzer’s assistants in Atlanta.
Monty Williams, Phoenix Suns
Williams, this season’s NBA Coach of the 12 monthswas a Spurs participant throughout Popovich’s first two years on the helm, and a training intern throughout San Antonio’s championship 2004-05 season.
Underneath Williams’ management, Phoenix boasted the league’s greatest common season document (64-18, probably the most wins and highest profitable proportion, .780, in franchise historical past) earlier than falling to the Mavericks within the convention semifinals.
Steve Kerr, Golden State Warriors
Kerr performed for Popovich from 1998-2003 in San Antonio. The 2 additionally coached collectively in Tokyo, the place Workforce USA received gold, and Kerr was named Popovich’s alternative as the top coach of the boys’s nationwide workforce in Dec.
This 12 months makes six NBA Finals appearances as a coach for Kerr and an opportunity for a fourth championship. He was the league’s 2015-16 Coach of the 12 months.
Doc Rivers, Philadelphia 76ers
Rivers performed his last two NBA seasons in San Antonio from 1994 to 1996, when Popovich was the workforce’s basic supervisor and earlier than he took over as its head coach. Rivers was a member of the Spurs’ broadcast workforce in 1999, Popovich’s third season on the helm, and reportedly virtually his final after his championship-caliber squad opened the shortened lockout season 6-8. There was a sense that Rivers can be known as to interchange Popovich ought to the workforce not enhance. As historical past got here to know, San Antonio improved to 37-13 on the season and received its first NBA title.
Mike Brown, Sacramento Kings
Earlier than head-coaching stints with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Los Angeles Lakers, Brown was an assistant beneath Popovich from 2000-03. In that last season in San Antonio, the Spurs received a championship. Brown would finally lose to Popovich within the NBA Finals in 2007 as head coach of LeBron James and the Cavaliers. He’s at present ending up his run with the Warriors as an assistant earlier than main the Kings subsequent season.