Greg Popovich..THANK YOU

I knew you would have worked on it all week. It shows our weekly Popcast. Guys. We're going to dedicate this show to the legendary coach Greg Popovich. And on Wednesday we have another show dedicated to another legend, David the Admiral Robinson. Don't miss that show, and we're going to break down what some of you guys are saying on Twitter and X the good, the bad, the stupid. We're going to go over as well, and we're going to dispel any rumors about any possible trades here in

San Antonio. All that to come on Wednesday show. But let's get right into it and let's talk about legendary coach Greg Popovich twenty nine years. As you've seen the reports over the last several days, he has decided to retire, hang up his nikes, hang up his coaching loafers, and decide to move off into the sunset. But it's not really the sunset really here in San Antonio. He will be taking over the presidential basketball operations here in San Antonio.

He will be like the proverbial Wizard of Oz behind the curtain. He will be paying no attention to the pop behind the curtain because that's him just working his magic. And we are so blessed to continue to have Greg Popovic in the organization for the growth of this new generation of players here, Victor Wembanyama, Daron Fox, so on, and so forth. The cell so handkj Castle and more. This was an interesting announcement. The Spurs have been in

the news since we've got Victor Wembanyama. Now we have another Rookie of the year. Legendary coach goes down at the beginning of the year, then our star goes down throughout halfway through the year. It has been an interesting, drama filled Spurs two years here in San Antonio, but it's been very drama filled for over twenty nine years here in our city. As Greg Popovich is put together a record that is on the mount Rushmore of coaches.

Let's just call a spade as paid red Auerbach, himself, Phil Jackson, pat Riley, and you can throw in a whole list of others in that fifth spot. Greg Popovich to twenty nine seasons. He has a record of twenty two to ninety one and fourteen and twenty two, putting himself at a sixty two percent win clip. And of course we had twenty two seasons where we've made the playoffs here in San Antonio. He had twenty plus seasons with fifty wins or more. That is a legendary career.

But Greg Popovich decides to hang up those loafers. What is next? We already said he is working on the basketball Operations title. I love that his brain will still be in the organization and Victor Wembinyama will still get a chance to pick his brain from time to time, and this is what a lot of these younger players are going to need. Wemby has already committed himself to the Spurs, and I'll tell you why. One of the reasons.

He just bought a huge mansion here in the San Antonio area, fully equipped like Tony Stark, as we had discussed in recent episodes. And when you put that a much money and time into something like that, you're planning on being here a very long time. I also saw Victor wembin Yama interview Steph Castle about his Rookie of the Year award. Go check that out on YouTube, and he just seemed like, I'm ready to be a Spur. We got a lot of work here to do, Steph,

and they're both most definitely agreeing with each other. And I love that the camaraderie in San Antonio is because of Greg Popovich. This has happened over twenty years. He's developed a culture. When we had the losing ways in the eighties and the late eighties, we tried to bring in coaches like a Larry Brown who was hot at

the time, and Larry got us to the playoffs. But because of David Robinson draft as well as the rookie of the Year in the nineties, let's call a spade a spade there then bringing in a lot of talent like Terry Cummings, Maurice Cheeks, veterans right, kind of seeing ourselves in that similar prediction, A lot of you guys wanted us to go out and go get a big name coach. Go get the guy from Minnesota, Go get the guy from Denver. Do this?

equivalent of two years ago. We keep nailing this into your heads. Remember when vasel kJ and all them went down and it was Victor's team for eleven games. They got a chance to see what Victor could do well. Victor and the rest of the crew got a chance to see what the other guys could do. At the end of the season, including Steph Cassel, who wins Rookie of the Year runner up in the Dunk Contest. Sky's the limit for the Spurs. The NBA is on notice and when the draft comes, this is going to be

a scary moment for the league. The Spurs have tons of picks they could give up. I just hope they don't give up the house for somebody's contract. That will be huge. We've done that before when Robinson came in. We don't want to do that again. We'll get there at another time, and with a basketball mind like Greg Popovich behind the scenes, I don't believe he's going to allow that to happen. But the NBA today is acting

kind of like Greg Popovich passed away. He's just moved on people, all right, and just not toward the light just yet. Okay continued prayers out to his health and family. He's got a great support group with the team and his family as well, and Popovich has gone through a

lot of stuff over the last ten years. And by the end of this show, we're going to tell you how we really feel about Greg Popovich as well with our dedication to him, and some of you Spurs fans may be like Ruds, I can't believe he said that. And that's my best Scooby I can give you today because we've been doing a lot of podcasts over the last couple of weeks here with this show and our sister show, Let's get biblical with Kad as well. However, the NBA do have their respects to Greg Popovich and

why not start with the King. I know we're not big Lebron fans around here, but here's what Lebron had to say about Greg Popovich in his mind on the Steve Nash Show.

Becky Hammond moved on, Steve Kerr moved on. We've seen all these coaches that were in the Spurs system underneath Popovich become great coaches, kind of like Bill Belichick in the NFL. He's had a lot of great coaches that have moved on and had decent careers, and a lot of them are not even done yet. Neither are some of those Spurs coaches that were here many many years ago.

But for us to go out and get a legendary coach to replace a legendary coach, eh, You see, Mitch Johnson is playing with house money right now, and that's what we need a Spurs fans. We need someone to play with house money now. Mitch can implement some of his things a little more. You know, Papovich had his hands and things last year. Mitch would be allowed the reins to the kingdom a little bit. And I'm sure Papovich was like, whoa, whoa back on this play well,

back on this situation. Hey, you should have done this or A B and C. And Mitch, being the smart guy that he is from Stanford, that is going to soak in like a sponge and it just does. Let's take another little clip. Listen to a Spurs legend in his own right. I'm joking r J. Richard Jefferson. Here's what ESPN and Richard Jefferson had to say about Popovich.

And of course, Popovich's national team career culminated as the head coach of the twenty twenty US Olympic team that went on to win gold in Tokyo. Afterwards, He described the experience as the most responsibility I've ever felt, strong

words for a career as successful as he is. And in twenty twenty two, Greg Popovich passed Don Nelson as the winning this coach in the history of the NBA with one thousand, three hundred and thirty six career wins, all with the Spurs, cementing his legacy, especially with his career simply one of the best to ever hold that title. I mean, what an incredible collection of moments. For more,

Coach pop Perk get a perk stop it. We welcome in our brother, Richard Jefferson, who obviously played for Papovich from nine to twelve. Richard, how did Coach pop really change the course of your own career?

that's not a problem. You know what's a problem. A problem is these individuals that are fighting for their food, these individuals that are living in war torn He had an ability to even when you were under a tremendous amount of stress and pressure, you still felt blessed to be in the position of what you were doing. That's

from like a personal side, from a player side. Greg Popovich helped transition my career individually and say, Richard, we need you to become more of a percentage three point shooter. I shot forty percent for the first time in my career with the San Antonio Spurs, and that's what extended

my career. That's what allowed me to be a more effective player up until year seventeen when I retired, if it wasn't for him and Chip England having that impact saying Richard, this is the next portion of your career. So I am forever grateful for him for his teaching, for his ability to just put.

some great reminiscing remarks right there. Even Kendrick Perkins, who this is a guy. Let me be honest with you. I'm like Charles Barkley, I don't know how Kendrick Perkins has got a job with inside the NBA. I just don't. I really really don't. That's like given Shannon Sharp his own show. Oh was was that too much? That was a little too much right there? But if you just tuned in, make sure you rewind the episode as we

are being dedicated to Greg Popovich. This is our San Antonio Spurs Weekly Popcast, our dedication to him, and of course the NBA had a lot to say about Greg Popovich. What about me? Some of you guys have emailed me at kd SA bookings at yahoo dot com. Again, that's KDSA Bookings at yahoo dot com. Some of you guys have sent me messages on YouTube, Tube, Twitter x and in our email box, and we would love to know your thoughts. Katie. Well, let me give you a little

bit of a story. Okay, before Greg Popovich was here. I was during the era of Bob Weiss, Lee Rose. Do you guys remember those guys? Sure you don't, eighty seven, eighty eight, eighty six Spurs, Alvin Robbinson, Larry Christobiac Ed Neely, Greg Cadillac, Anderson, Johnny Moore. I was a part of that group as a Spurs fan. And you younger generation are like, huh, you just pulled your best Kendrick Lamar on me. You're like, huh, yeah, go google it, kids,

go google Magic, my friends. I was a huge Spurs fan, still is to this day, and we have a pennant here in our office in our studios from that era. Now, I saw a lot of bad basketball at that time, but a lot of decent players, players that could have been eventual stars, but just the stars didn't the line at that time because you we were in an era

of Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Julius Irving. These guys were dominant in the league and the Spurs had only been a young organization in the NBA for about ten years, Okay, and I missed the NBA Spurs dominant era. I ended up moving before nineteen ninety nine out of San Antonio. I remember reading about the Spurs a lot. I lived in New York, so we know how that is a lot of Knickerbocker fans up there. And I'm a Spur and I'm hearing it all. We saw a video on

TikTok last week. We're a Spurs fan and a k next game or when Binyama Jersey get punched in the face. Really classy New York, by the way, Really classy New York's about to get punched in the face by the Celtics, by the way, in the playoffs. But that's another story another time, all right. But we'll see if Jalen Brunson Berner see what they did. There will be heating up for the Knicks and see if he can get them past the Celtics. But with that being said, Popovich comes in.

I didn't know much about Popovich. Knew he was an assistant coach under Larry Brown, who was an assistant coach under a few other player coaches as well. And the Spurs kind of did something that everybody wants us to do right now and go out get that big proverbial coach. But we kept it in the house and Greg Popovitch didn't have a good intern year. A lot of you guys may not think Mitch Johnson has a good intern year,

but I believe he did. To get the Spurs about thirty wins and an opportunity to spoil some teams positioning in the Western Conference for the playoffs. We did just that. So let's leave that there and leave us fade as faded. But as that big rant run came for the San Antonio Spurs in ninety nine, three oh seven, and fourteen, I was not there. I do blame my wife the year that the Ray Allen shot was hit, though it was her first year ever, buying a Spurs jersey was

a monogenobleigue. Girl's spark jersey. Ladies know how you do it up out there. And of course she puts it on on the Spurs lose and I told her, you're never going to put a Spurs jersey on it again. Never. All right, during these losing Susis seasons, this is your time start wearing jerseys. I'll let you do that, okay. Kind of reminds me of the wedding, say er take off my Van Hanlen shirt before the band breaks up. That was kind of like my wife. But I got

to see all this run. I got to see the Kawhi Leonard Era, I got to see the Duncan Chenobli, Mario elie Or and the list goes on and on, the ones that allowed us to win that many titles. And as we started the top of the show with we could have won five in a row, I believe, I believe we should have won and O two and one and O six And with that being said, that

would have been five straight years. But the Spurs were a dynasty ninety nine oh three, five, seven, and fourteen five championships and of course we dropped that one six times. We were in the NBA underneath Greg Popovich. This is why he is a legendary coach. That's my thoughts on Papovich. We love you as a coach, love you as a person. I love some of the things that you say on the sidelines. We'll bring that up at the end of the show, so don't miss that. But I was not

a fan of his politics. I was not a fan of when he would bring the politics in. I was not a fan that when he would get on the podium, and we want to know what happened in that game, Why this happened, Why that we want to know the x's and o's, that's why you're there. And he decides to say, well, I believe in this, and I believe in that, and I think that you should do this, and we're in a generation of that turned me off in a proverbial moment last year. You knew the old

man was off his rocker just a little bit. I love you, Papovich, but we're roasting you at the same time. That's what Spurs fans do. I'm sorry, I am a forty year fan. I've kind of earned the badge a little bit. Last year when they were in the ear against the Clippers in the Kawhi Leonard moment, you fans. US fans started booing Kwi every time he had the ball, and it was just a dumb moment for Popovich to grab a microphone, call a time out and turn it

into a perferbial open mic poetry night. I did not like that moment at all. US fans, yes, sometimes can get out of control, but you know who's the loudest it you bleach your bums up there. You guys are the ones that the loudest and get those cheers going the people in the front row, don't they act like it's a damn library At times they just do. And with that being said, you have a right to boo. That's what sports is about. You cheer for the people

you like, you boo the people you don't. Kawhi Leonard had left a sour taste and a lot of our mouths the way he left, the way he treated our staff, the way he treated the medical team. Then many years later, we draft a kid by the name of Victor wemen Yama who has a possible life threading injury, and he says, the medical staff has been fantastic. But we're not going to go into Kawhi today. We're not going to go into cry Leonard. We're not going to do all that.

It is about Popovich. But I believe that Popovich's politics that should be a new show on CNN. By the way, Popovich's politics, and there's a time and a place for that. There's a time and a place for that. There's a lot of social media outlets, there's a lot of outlets that would love to have him on the show talk about that kind of thing. I don't think it was the right time even though we were living in an era in twenty twenty, going through BLM, LGBTQ, ABCDFG, all

that stuff going on, it wasn't the time. It really wasn't the time or place because we were trying to escape from it in sports. Were in an escape at that time. But neither here nor there. Greg Popovich goes down as a fantastic man, a fantastic leader in and out of the court, in the community, out of the community. He is going to be the legend in this town

for many, many years to come. Just like Lakers have pat Riley just Lake, the Celtics have Red Auerbach, Phil Jackson in Chicago and many other places that have their coaches etched in stone, so will Greg Popovitch. And by the way, Spurs organization, Spurs organization, I'm calling you out right now. Michael Jordan has a bronze statue in the front of their arena. We will have a new multi billion dollar facility put here in San Antonio. The ground

has been breaked, broke on it. If you go by the Tower of America's right now, you'll see they're bringing down the old ut History Center. They're starting to bring it down. When you build this new facility for the Spurs and for the city. Please put a bronze statue of Greg Popovich up. Greg Popovich is gone, but his legacy will continue to rain. And it is so hard

to say goodbye to yesterday. And we are going to leave you with a little bit of Boys to Men in the background with It's so hard to say goodbye to Yesterday, along with some of Greg Popovich's greatest sideline moments. You guys enjoy and we'll see you on the flip side Wednesday for an all new show right here on San Antonio Spurs Weekly Podcast with Katie. Stick around a little bit longer after the song because we do have

a special shout out from Steve Kerr as well. God bless and remember, go Spurs Go.

the man who coached them inside the lines. Before Kerr and Udoka took to their respective benches in tonight's game, which is their biggest of their respective seasons, it took a little bit of time to pay their respects and to reflect on coach Pop.