The long -time Spurs trainer Gregg Popovich, who, after 29 seasons as NBAS, traces the most victorious coach in history, will go on to the team president

Gregg Popovich’s legendary career as head coach in the NBA is officially over.

The long -time coach of San Antonio Spurs will no longer train the team, but will switch to team president full -time. ESPNS Shams Charania reported on Friday.

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Popovich was away from the Spurs most of the season after suffering a little stroke in November. Popovich did not return to the team as he recovered, and co -coach Mitch Johnson took over. The Spurs ended 34-48 this season and completely missed the playoffs.

Popovich experienced a medical incident in a restaurant in San Antonio, just before the first round of the playoffs began in April. He was briefly taken to a hospital, but then brought home to relax.

Popovich has been a staple in the league for decades and will retire as the longest coach in all four professional sports leagues of men in the USA. He is also the most victorious coach in NBA history.

Popovich has been a member of the Spurs organization since 1994 and actually commissioned himself as head coach of the team when he fired the then head coach Bob Hill in December 1996. The move turned out to be the right one because he quickly led the team to a winning record in the following season and in 1999.

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With the trio of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginóbili, Popovich won three championships over a period from 2003 to 2007 in one of the great dynasties in recent NBA history. The Spurs made it twice after this run under Popovich’s lead, first in 2013 before they won its fifth title in 2014.

Popovich will end his career with a record of 1,422-867. He is the most profitable head coach in NBA history, well ahead of Don Nelson’s 1,335 career winners. The coach of Milwaukee Bucks, Doc Rivers, is the only active trainer in the top 10 in the winning list. He was included in the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in 2023. Popovich also had a long term with the team USA and helped the team at the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021 for a gold medal.

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While he was running the Spurs for almost three decades, Popovich may have produced one of the best coaching trees in NBA history. The coach of Golden State Warriors, Steve Kerr, won a title when he played for Popovich in San Antonio, and former assistants Mike Brown, Ime Udoka, Mike Bodenholzer and Taylor Jenkins currently have head coach jobs in the league.

The former assistant Becky Hammon is now also head coach of the Las Vegas Aces. She was the first woman to head an NBA team in a regular game of the season when Popovich was ejected in 2020.

Popovich also acquired the call to be one of the most pronounced coaches in the second half of his career. He often spoke out against the former President Donald Trump, about gun control after mass shootings and during the Black Lives Matter movement in a way that only a few coaches in every league in the USA could.

While the Spurs have to struggle in recent years they have not made any playoffs or had a winning record since the 2018-19 campaign-Popovich’s impact on the league was still remarkable. Now in retirement and looking back on his career, there is no doubt that he will be one of the best coaches in the history of sport.