Gregg Popovich brought the house down in his first public comments since retiring as head coach of the San Antonio Spurs on Monday.
Flanked by former players who’ve become rehabilitation assistants since Popovich suffered a stroke and stepped away from the team early in the just-completed regular season, the 76-year-old basketball lifer flashed the familiar zing as he took the dais to be introduced as the franchise’s team president.
With Manu Ginobili to his right and Tim Duncan on his left, Popovich pronounced himself back in the saddle and removed a light, white jacket to reveal a custom-made shirt declaring his new title.
“I’m no longer coach. I’m El Jefe,” Popovich said, revealing the scripted words on the front of his black t-shirt, which translates to The Boss.
While slowly turning around with some help from Ginobili and Duncan, he pointed to the back of his shirt which read “Senor Popovich, president of basketball ops.”
The gathering Monday was planned to introduce interim coach Mitch Johnson as Popovich’s successor. It marked the first public outing and comment from Popovich, who is the all-time winningest coach in NBA history with 1,422 victories.
“It’s quite a day for many of us, but there’s a lot of thank yous after 25 or 30 years,” Popovich said. “Mitch Johnson, Manu, Timmy. I can never express the gratitude I have for so many people caring about our organization and sending me thoughts and prayers, that sort of thing, since I had this stroke. Things are getting better by the day, but it’s not good enough for what we plan ahead. So it’s time to make this change.
“I want to thank all of you in here, former players, coaches, friends, people from the ticket office and people who put on a show during timeouts, we all have a part in this. It’s not just the players and coaches, everybody that has been dedicated to do their part to make us a successful and thriving organization. And that starts at the top with the Holt family. We will continue to do our best to do this with class. It’s one of the reasons why Mitch Johnson will be taking over, because we have total faith in him to continue what’s been started a long time ago.”
