NBA: Iconic coach Popovich suffers “mild stroke”
The 75-year-old is “expected to make a full recovery,” said the San Antonio Spurs.
Fate for Gregg Popovich
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The 75-year-old is “expected to make a full recovery,” said the San Antonio Spurs.
Iconic coach Gregg Popovich suffered a “mild stroke” earlier this month and will be absent from NBA club San Antonio Spurs indefinitely. The franchise announced on Wednesday the reason for the absence of its long-time head coach in recent games.
“The incident occurred on November 2nd at the Frost Bank Center,” the Spurs wrote on social media. The 75-year-old is “expected to make a full recovery.” It is not clear when he will be able to return to the sidelines. Assistant Mitch Johnson is leading the team as interim coach in Popovich’s absence.
“His health is the priority at the moment,” assistant coach Johnson had said the previous week: “I’ve spoken to him. He’s in good spirits. He’s okay and we can’t wait to have him back.”
Popovich has been in charge of the Spurs since 1996; no other coach has stayed with a team for so long. He led San Antonio to five championships (1999, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014), and he also leads the all-time list of NBA coaches with 1,390 regular-season wins and 170 playoff wins. As national coach, he led the USA to gold at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
In now six games without Popovich, the Spurs suffered three defeats and won three.
