The Spurs’ secret weapon this postseason? A former coach offering pearls of wisdom
The San Antonio Spurs had just lost Game 3 of the Western Conference finals in demoralizing fashion. Oklahoma City had beaten them by 15 points on the Spurs’ home court to take a 2-1 series lead, and San Antonio decided to have a closed-door meeting immediately following the game.
This wasn’t just any team meeting, though. In the locker room were front office personnel, trainers, various staff — people who wouldn’t normally be in there postgame.
“We closed the doors. ‘We don’t let anybody know what’s going on in here,’ Spurs guard De’Aaron Fox later recalled on a Peacock broadcast, evidently breaking the meeting’s one rule. Moments later, the door opened. “We see Pop come in, and it’s like, ‘ahhhh,’ ” Fox said, raising his voice in excitement.
Gregg Popovich, the former Spurs head coach, wanted to convey a message to the team. “That’s BS. That’s not how we play basketball,” he said, according to Fox.
The Spurs came back to beat the Thunder in seven games and make the NBA Finals, their first appearance since 2014. Not many people expected them to be here, in large part because they have such a young team, centered around Victor Wembanyama, Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper, all of whom are in their early 20s. Their head coach, Mitch Johnson, is 39 years old, too, and in only his first full season at the helm.
But San Antonio’s secret weapon this postseason might be Popovich, its former coach who has offered words of wisdom at every critical juncture. He may not be on the bench but he is very much involved on the periphery. He hangs around the practice facility, sits in on film sessions and gives the players pointers, maybe in a quiet conversation to the side of the court or via text message after the game. Or he might deliver his messages in a more forceful way, like in that closed-door meeting in the Western Conference finals.
“When he speaks, everybody listens,” Wembanyama said recently.
That’s because Popovich is considered one of the best coaches in NBA history. Over 16 seasons, from 1998 to 2014, he led the Spurs to five titles and nurtured Hall of Famers Tim Duncan, David Robinson, Manu Ginóbili and Tony Parker. He was known for his attention to detail, his Air Force background, his “Pounding the Rock” mantra, coaching the stars as hard as the scrubs and his ability to connect with players on and off the court.
Popovich was still coaching at 75 years old when he suffered a stroke in November 2024, a few games into the season. Johnson, one of Popovich’s assistants, stepped in as interim coach. When Johnson was elevated to the full-time job in May 2025, the Spurs held a press conference and Popovich made one of his first public appearances since the stroke.
Popovich moved gingerly and was helped to the lectern by Duncan and Ginóbili. The two of them had been accompanying him to his rehab appointments, too, and Popovich cracked that they had been giving “the rehab people new ideas of things to do to me.” He was “getting better by the day,” he added. “But it’s not good enough for what we plan ahead,” and that’s why he was stepping aside for Johnson to take over.
Even then, Popovich recognized the potential of the Spurs’ young core. “We’ve got some young players who are going to end up being really great players,” he said. “… And Mitch Johnson will be the guy that forges their futures. And I’ll do everything I can to help him and help them.”
Popovich said he had a new job, anyway. He removed his jacket, with some help, to reveal a T-shirt underneath. “I’m no longer coach,” he said. “I’m El Jefe” — which translates to “The Boss” in Spanish.
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Over the past year, Popovich has lived up to that title. He attends practices and shootarounds and makes himself available for questions — or offers unsolicited advice. “It can be something as small as boxing someone out on a free throw,” Fox said, “or one extra pass that happened at this point of the game that could have changed the game.”
This season, the Spurs exceeded everyone’s expectations. After six consecutive losing seasons, they went 62-20, earned the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference, and announced themselves as ahead of schedule. The only lingering question entering the playoffs was: How far could they go with so little playoff experience?
At several key moments this postseason, Popovich has offered advice to help usher this young team along. Typically, they have responded and risen to the occasion.
In the second round, the Spurs lost Game 4 in Minnesota, during which Wembanyama was ejected for throwing an elbow near the head of a Timberwolves player. Afterward, the Spurs flew back to San Antonio — and Popovich met Wembanyama at the airport. “He maybe wanted to make a statement or make his talking even more impactful by being there,” Wembanyama said. The forward kept his composure as the Spurs won the series.
In the Western Conference finals, after the Spurs lost Game 5 to the Thunder, Popovich sent a text message to Harper. The young guard had only scored 5 points in the loss. “You’ve got to find a way to get the job done,” it read, according to Harper. He scored 30 points over the next two games and helped San Antonio close out the series.
Now in the NBA Finals, San Antonio’s young core is facing another mental hurdle: They lost the first two games of the series, at home, to the New York Knicks. In Game 1, Wembanyama had a particularly poor shooting night and Popovich sent him a text afterward. “In the big lines, it was that I’ve been bad and I’m better than this,” Wembanyama said.
Before San Antonio flew to New York for Game 3, Popovich addressed the team. His message this time? Forget about the first two games. Focus on the next one.
Popovich has been trying to get them to play more even-keeled for some time now. He talks so often to these young Spurs, it seems they have his voice stuck in their heads. They parrot his words at press conferences.
“As Pop says, when you win, you’re never as good as you thought you were. And when you lose, you’re never as bad — or rarely,” Wembanyama said during Round 2 against Minnesota. “Obviously, stay humble and keep working.”
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