By Jeff McDonald, Staff writer | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2025-05-02 11:01:21
由生成式人工智能翻译，译文内容可能不准确或不完整，以原文为准。
圣安东尼奥马刺队主教练格雷格·波波维奇于2022年3月11日星期五在圣安东尼奥的AT&T中心庆祝。在他身旁的是圣安东尼奥马刺队中锋雅各布·珀尔特尔（25号，左）和圣安东尼奥马刺队前锋凯尔登·约翰逊（3号）。马刺队以104-102击败犹他爵士队，波波维奇获得了第1336场常规赛胜利，成为NBA历史上获胜最多的教练。
圣安东尼奥的一个时代结束了。
格雷格·波波维奇(Gregg Popovich)，他以坚定且有时暴躁的形象塑造了马刺队三十多年，已经从教练岗位上退役，球队于周五宣布了这一消息。
“虽然我对这项运动的热爱和激情依然存在，但我已经决定是时候卸任主教练一职了，”波波维奇在一份声明中说。“我永远感谢那些让我能够担任马刺队主教练的出色球员、教练、工作人员和球迷，并且很高兴有机会继续支持对我有重要意义的球队、社区和城市。”
波波维奇将留在俱乐部，担任篮球运营总裁的前台职务。米奇·约翰逊(Mitch Johnson)，这位38岁的助理教练，上赛季在球队名人堂级别的总教练缺席的情况下指导了马刺队，已被任命为球队的永久教练。
不久之前，波波维奇离职的消息在圣安东尼奥会像晴天霹雳一样，因为就一代球迷而言，他一直在马刺队的场边执教，时间几乎和阿拉莫古堡位于市中心一样长。
尽管波波维奇的退役决定是震耳欲聋的，但并非完全出人意料。这一决定是在一系列健康问题中做出的，特别是11月2日对阵明尼苏达森林狼的比赛之前中风，那场比赛是他执教的第29个赛季的第五场比赛。
“波波教练对我们家庭、圣安东尼奥、马刺队和篮球运动的非凡影响是深远的，”马刺队执行合伙人彼得·J·霍尔特(Peter J. Holt)说。“他的荣誉和奖项不足以衡量他对这么多人的影响。他作为一个人、领导者和教练，是真正独一无二的。我们整个家庭，以及来自世界各地的球迷，都感谢他作为圣安东尼奥马刺队主教练的辉煌29年。”
波波维奇中风后从未回到教练席，将日常指挥权交给了约翰逊。在约翰逊的带领下，马刺队在本赛季剩余的比赛中取得了32胜45负的战绩。
由于NBA规则的一个巧合，约翰逊上赛季执教的每场比赛都被计入波波维奇的历史胜负记录中。
“波波对我们球队的影响——从他执教的球员，与他共事的员工，以及圣安东尼奥社区——很难用语言表达出来，”约翰逊说。“如果我试图用语言表达，那将无法充分体现。”
虽然波波维奇的健康问题预示了他离开教练席的决定，但这一消息仍然是对许多曾经认为这位76岁的老人可能会永远执教的人的打击。
1999年10月16日星期六，在意大利米兰举行的国际比赛中，马刺队以103-68击败巴西瓦斯科达伽马队后，大卫·罗宾逊举起了麦当劳锦标赛奖杯。与球队一起庆祝的是NBA总裁大卫·斯特恩（左）、格雷格·波波维奇教练和球队老板彼得·霍尔特（右）。道格·塞赫雷斯/员工
“对于圣安东尼奥和马刺球迷来说，这是一个悲伤的日子，”前马刺队前锋肖恩·埃利奥特(Sean Elliott)说，他在加入球队的广播席之前曾为波波维奇效力。“我们都爱波波，并感谢他为球队、城市和社区中的这么多人所做的一切。他是一根支柱。他就是马刺篮球。”
凯尔登·约翰逊，马刺队阵容中效力时间最长的球员，距离他在球队的第六个赛季还有几周，他说没有波波维奇在身边，球馆将不再一样。
“他为我的职业生涯创造了奇迹，”约翰逊说。“他帮助我成为一个伟大的年轻人，一个伟大的年轻球员。但最终，第一要务是波波的健康。这是我最关心的事情。”
早在2月份，当马刺队发布声明宣布他们的主教练正式缺席本赛季时，波波维奇表示他希望能够恢复健康，以便在2025-26赛季重返全职工作。
他的退役肯定会在圣安东尼奥留下一个巨大的空缺，其规模无法用纸上的数字来定义。
这位联盟历史上最年长的教练也是获胜次数最多的教练，他的历史战绩为1422胜869负。
他是马刺队历史上所有五次NBA总冠军的记录教练，波波维奇总是将这一趣闻主要归功于1997年超级球星前锋蒂姆·邓肯(Tim Duncan)的到来。
波波维奇和邓肯与马努·吉诺比利(Manu Ginobili)和托尼·帕克(Tony Parker)——都是奈史密斯篮球名人堂成员——组成了马刺队冠军时代的拉什莫尔山。
仅仅是因为坚持，一个赛季又一个赛季，波波维奇成为了马刺队特许经营的长期面孔。不能没有彼此。
“当你想到圣安东尼奥马刺队时，你会想到格雷格·波波维奇，”前马刺队控球后卫安东尼奥·丹尼尔斯(Antonio Daniels)说。“他将不再出现在场边的事实是不同的。这是整个篮球界都必须适应的事情。”
波波维奇于1970年毕业于空军学院，他的第一份教练工作是在他的母校担任汉克·伊根(Hank Egan)的助理教练。
他的主教练生涯最初并不顺利，在洛杉矶郊外的第三级别学校波莫纳-皮策学院，波波维奇在1979年的首个赛季中取得了2胜22负的战绩。
马刺队主教练格雷格·波波维奇于2014年10月28日星期二在AT&T中心举行的戒指颁奖典礼和对阵达拉斯小牛队的赛季揭幕战中戴着他的2014年NBA总冠军戒指。（Kin Man Hui/圣安东尼奥快报新闻）
1986年，他获得了重大突破，他从第三级别联赛休假，担任堪萨斯大学拉里·布朗(Larry Brown)的无偿助理教练。
在布朗于1988年被聘为马刺队教练后，他引诱波波维奇到圣安东尼奥担任助理教练。
除了从1992年到1994年在金州勇士队担任唐·尼尔森(Don Nelson)的助手之外，波波维奇此后一直住在圣安东尼奥。
埃利奥特在1989年成为一名新秀，他与波波维奇的第一次互动是在从圣安东尼奥到格兰德河谷各个前哨的长途班车上，在那里，马刺队通常会在每个赛季开始前举办一系列球迷诊所。
起初，埃利奥特不知道该如何评价这位不苟言笑的助理教练。
“我以为他像个海军陆战队员，”埃利奥特说。“他看起来像个粗鲁的老家伙，尽管他当时并没有那么老。”
那个发型像罐头瓶盖一样粗鲁的老家伙将巩固他在马刺队组织中永恒的印记。
波波维奇于1994年从海湾地区回到马刺队，担任总经理。在1996-97赛季的18场比赛中，由于球队以3胜15负的战绩苦苦挣扎，波波维奇解雇了鲍勃·希尔(Bob Hill)，并亲自担任主教练。
这一举动——在当时引起了争议——改变了篮球历史的格局。
马刺队在波波维奇的第一个赛季以20胜62负的战绩结束，然后在第二年夏天选秀选中了邓肯。俱乐部在23年内没有再经历过一个失利赛季。
“波波对我们的比赛意义重大，”洛杉矶快船队教练泰伦·卢(Ty Lue)说。“他为比赛所做的一切，他是我们追随和倾听的人。”
随着时间的推移，波波维奇树立了作为终极球员教练的声誉，这一称号跨越了几代人。他可以像与39岁经验丰富的篮球专家克里斯·保罗(Chris Paul)一样轻松地与21岁冉冉升起的新星维克托·文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama)打交道。
“每个教练都有自己的个性，但他不是有史以来最好的教练不是没有原因的，”文班亚马说。“他带来了一些特别的东西。”
波波维奇特有的措辞——夹杂着“砸碎岩石”、“企业知识”和“适当的恐惧”等短语——成为了马刺队的通用语。
"29年。教练，感谢您的智慧、您的领导能力、您创造的文化……但最重要的是您是一位伟大而鼓舞人心的人。我很荣幸能成为这29年的一部分。祝您在新的篇章中一切顺利，”文班亚马周五下午在X上说。
波波维奇于1996年12月10日执教了他的第一场马刺队比赛，在菲尼克斯以93-76的比分失利。他的最后一场比赛是在2024年万圣节之夜，当时他带领马刺队在犹他州以106-98的比分获胜。
在此期间，波波维奇创造了NBA遗产，这是不可能复制的。
对于那些为他效力的人来说，波波维奇是一位父亲般的角色，一位严厉的工头，一位老师，有时是一位朋友，有时是脖子上挥之不去的疼痛。他是一位讲师、一位哲学家、一位历史学家、一位政治迷、一位不知疲倦的社会正义倡导者、一位埃尔维斯·普雷斯利(Elvis Presley)的粉丝。
“他的影响是不可估量的，”埃利奥特说。“这不仅仅是篮球。”
即使他的职业生涯朝着在斯普林菲尔德不可避免的位置前进，波波维奇于2023年入选奈史密斯篮球名人堂，但他从未认为自己是这项运动的巨人。
“我是一个第三级别联赛的人，”波波维奇曾说过。“我不是名人堂级别的人。”
2023年入选者格雷格·波波维奇在2023年8月12日在马萨诸塞州斯普林菲尔德交响乐大厅举行的2023年奈史密斯篮球名人堂入选仪式上与名人堂成员和前球员蒂姆·邓肯握手。（Mike Lawrie/Getty Images 摄）
截至周五，波波维奇现在是一位半退休的名人堂成员。
早在2013年，在马刺队准备在NBA总决赛中面对迈阿密热队一场令人捏一把汗的第七场比赛之前，一位记者问当时64岁的波波维奇，他是否考虑过一旦系列赛结束他会做什么。
波波维奇当时嘲笑说，退休被高估了。
“你只能种这么多西红柿，”波波维奇说。
工作做得很好，名人堂级别的职业生涯已经载入史册，一座城市永远感激，波波维奇将发现他能成为一个多么有耐心的园丁，因为篮球仍然在他的血液中。
与此同时，马刺队即将发现没有波波维奇的生活到底意味着什么。
“从来没有人像他这样，而且永远不会再有人像他这样了，”埃利奥特说。“你无法取代他。”
Spurs’ coach Gregg Popovich is livid after a hard foul by the Mavericks’ during fourth quarter action game four Western Conference Finals at the American Airlines Center in Dallas May 25, 2003. Ref Joe DeRosa tries to calm him down as Spurs Malik Rose, left and Tim Duncan look on. PHOTO BY EDWARD A. ORNELAS/STAFF
Spurs head coach Greg Popovich, center, sits back with assistants P.J. Carlesimo and Mike Budenholser, right, during fourth quarter action at the SBC Center game two NBA Western Conference semifinals Wednesday, May 5, 2004. BAHRAM MARK SOBHANI / STAFF
San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, right, hugs his point guard Tony Parker during practice Tuesday, June 10, 2003, in East Rutherford, N.J. The Spurs lead the New Jersey Nets two games to one in the NBA finals. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)
San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama (1) talks to head coach Gregg Popovich before facing the Memphis Grizzlies at Frost Bank Center on Friday, March 22, 2024, in San Antonio, Texas.
DETROIT, MICHIGAN - JANUARY 10: Head coach Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs talks to Victor Wembanyama #1 during the second half while playing the Detroit Pistons at Little Caesars Arena on January 10, 2024 in Detroit, Michigan. San Antonio Spurs won the game 130-108.
Apr 2, 2014; San Antonio, TX, USA; San Antonio Spurs guard Manu Ginobili (right), and head coach Gregg Popovich (center), and Tim Duncan (left) talk on the bench during the second half against the Golden State Warriors at AT&T Center. The Spurs won 111-90.
New Coach Gregg Popovich and David Robinson confer just before the start of the game in Phoenix against the Suns on Dec. 10, 1996, which the Spurs lost.
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich talks with forward Victor Wembanyama during a time out in the first half of their NBA game with the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Frost Bank Center on Saturday, Jan. 27, 2024. San Antonio beat Minnesota 113-112.
San Antonio Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich talks with his team during fourth quarter of game four of the NBA Finals at the Continental Airlines Arena in New Jersey Wednesday, June 11, 2003. (JERRY LARA STAFF)
San Antonio Spurs forward Tim Duncan (21) talks with Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, left, during the fourth quarter against the Phoenix Suns on April 5, 2007 in San Antonio.
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich talks with forward Victor Wembanyama during a time out in the first half of their NBA game with the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Frost Bank Center on Saturday, Jan. 27, 2024. San Antonio beat Minnesota 113-112.
Coach Gregg Popovich (right) share a lighter moment with Josh Carlton, a summer league roster invite, at the Spurs practice facility on Friday, June 30, 2023.
Gregg Popovich speaks during his enshrinement at the Basketball Hall of Fame as presenters David Robinson, Tony Parker, Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili, from left, listen Saturday, Aug. 12, 2023, in Springfield, Mass. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)
Gregg Popovich while he was at the Air Force Academy in the 69-70 season. This was his senior season. Courtesy Air Force Academy
Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich hugs Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant (24) at the AT&T Center on Friday, Dec. 11, 2015. Spurs defeated the Lakers, 109-87. (Kin Man Hui/San Antonio Express-News)
San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich disagrees with a foul call on the Spurs during the second quarter against the Chicago Bulls at Frost Bank Center on Friday, Dec. 8, 2023, in San Antonio, Texas. The Bulls defeated the Spurs, 121-112.
San Antonio Spurs’ Tim Duncan, left, and coach Gregg Popovich celebrate after defeating the New York Knicks 78-77 to clinch the championship in Game 5 of the 1999 NBA Finals Friday, June 25, 1999, at New York’s Madison Square Garden. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich sits down after getting on the microphone to tell the crowd to stop booing LA Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard (2) during the second quarter at Frost Bank Center on Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2023, in San Antonio, Texas.
点击查看原文：Gregg Popovich retires, officially ending an era for San Antonio Spurs
Gregg Popovich retires, officially ending an era for San Antonio Spurs
San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich celebrates Friday, Mar 11, 2022 at the AT&T Center in San Antonio with San Antonio Spurs center Jakob Poeltl (25), left, and San Antonio Spurs forward Keldon Johnson (3) after the Spurs beat the Utah Jazz 104-102 to give Popovich 1,336 regular season wins, the most in NBA history.
It is the end of an era in San Antonio.
Gregg Popovich, who for more than three decades shaped the Spurs franchise in his steadfast and at times irascible image, has retired from coaching, the team announced Friday.
“While my love and passion for the game remain, I’ve decided it’s time to step away as head coach,” Popovich said in a statement. “I’m forever grateful to the wonderful players, coaches, staff and fans who allowed me to serve them as the Spurs head coach and am excited for the opportunity to continue to support the organization, community and city that are so meaningful to me.”
Popovich will remain with the club in a front-office capacity as president of basketball operations. Mitch Johnson, the 38-year-old assistant who guided the Spurs in the absence of their Hall of Fame head man last season, has been named the team’s permanent coach moving forward.
Not long ago, news of Popovich’s departure would have hit like a thunderbolt in San Antonio, where as far as a generation of fans are concerned he has been stalking the Spurs’ sidelines for about as long as the Alamo has been located downtown.
Popovich’s decision to retire, though earth-shaking, was not entirely surprising. It came amid a series of health concerns, notably a stroke suffered before a Nov. 2 game against Minnesota at the Frost Bank Center, five games into his 29th season.
“Coach Pop’s extraordinary impact on our family, San Antonio, the Spurs and the game of basketball is profound,” said Peter J. Holt, the Spurs’ managing partner. “His accolades and awards don’t do justice to the impact he has had on so many people. He is truly one-of-one as a person, leader and coach. Our entire family, alongside fans from across the globe, are grateful for his remarkable 29-year run as the head coach of the San Antonio Spurs.”
Popovich never returned to the bench after his stroke, ceding the day-to-day reins to Johnson. The Spurs went 32-45 under Johnson the rest of the season.
Thanks to a quirk in NBA rules, each of the games Johnson coached last season are added to Popovich’s all-time won-lost mark.
“Pop’s impact on our organization – from the players that he’s coached and the staff that’s worked with him and in the community of San Antonio – it’s hard to articulate that or put into words,” Johnson said. “If I try to put them into words, it would not do it justice.”
Though Popovich’s health issues presaged his decision to step away from the bench, the news nevertheless landed as a blow to many who once assumed the 76-year-old might indeed coach forever.
David Robinson holds up the McDonald’s Championship trophy after the Spurs defeated Brazil Vasco Da Gama 103-68 to win the international tournament in Milan, Italy Saturday Oct. 16, 1999. Celebrating with the team is NBA commissioner David Stern, left, Coach Gregg Popovich and team owner Peter Holt, right. DOUG SEHRES/STAFF
“It’s a sad day for San Antonio and for Spurs fans," said former Spurs forward Sean Elliott, who played for Popovich before joining the team’s broadcast booth. "We all love Pop and appreciate everything he has done for the team and the city and so many people in the community. He’s a pillar. He is Spurs basketball.”
Keldon Johnson, the longest-tenured player on the Spurs’ roster weeks removed from his sixth season with the team, said the gym will not be the same without Popovich around.
“He’s done wonders for my career,” Johnson said. “He’s helped me become a great young man, a great young player. But ultimately, priority No. 1 is Pop’s health. That’s the main thing I care about.”
As recently as February, when the Spurs issued a statement declaring their head coach officially out for the season, Popovich indicated he hoped to get well enough to return to the job full-time for the 2025-26 campaign.
His retirement is certain to leave a gaping hole in San Antonio, the size of which cannot be defined by mere numbers on a page.
The oldest coach in league history was also the winningest, with a total of 1,422 victories on his all-time ledger next to 869 losses.
He was the coach of record for all five NBA titles in Spurs history, a tidbit of trivia Popovich never failed to attribute predominantly to the arrival of superstar forward Tim Duncan in 1997.
Popovich and Duncan teamed with Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker – Naismith Hall of Famers, all – to form the Mount Rushmore of the Spurs’ championship era.
By virtue of simply sticking around, season after season, Popovich became the long-term face of the Spurs franchise. There could not be one without the other.
“When you think of the San Antonio Spurs, you think of Gregg Popovich,” former Spurs point guard Antonio Daniels said. “The fact that he will no longer be gracing the sidelines there is different. It’s something the whole basketball world is going to have to adjust to.”
A 1970 graduate of the Air Force Academy, Popovich’s first coaching job was as an assistant at his alma mater under Hank Egan.
His head coaching career began inauspiciously a Pomona-Pitzer, a Division-III school outside of Los Angeles, where Popovich went 2-22 in his inaugural season in 1979.
Spurs’ head coach Gregg Popovich walks away with his 2014 NBA Championship ring during the ring ceremony and season opener against the Dallas Mavericks at the AT&T Center on Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2014. (Kin Man Hui/San Antonio Express-News)
He got his big break in 1986 when he took a sabbatical from the D-III ranks to serve as an unpaid assistant to Larry Brown at Kansas.
After Brown was hired as the Spurs’ coach in 1988, he lured Popovich to San Antonio as an assistant.
Save for two seasons as an aide under Don Nelson at Golden State from 1992 to 1994, Popovich has lived at a San Antonio address ever since.
A rookie in 1989, Elliott’s first interactions with Popovich came on long shuttle bus rides from San Antonio to various outposts in the Rio Grande Valley, where the Spurs would often hold a series of fan clinics before the start of each season.
At first, Elliott wondered what to make of the no-nonsense assistant coach.
“I thought he was like a Marine,” Elliott said. “He just seemed like a gruff old dude, even though he wasn’t that old at the time.”
That gruff old dude in the jarhead haircut would come to cement his everlasting mark on the Spurs organization.
Popovich returned from the Bay Area to become the Spurs’ general manager in 1994. Eighteen games into the 1996-97 season, with the team floundering at 3-15, Popovich fired Bob Hill and installed himself as head coach.
The move – controversial at the time – changed the shape of basketball history.
The Spurs finished Popovich’s first season 20-62, then drafted Duncan the following summer. The club would not endure another losing season for 23 years.
“Pop’s meant so much to our game,” Los Angeles Clippers coach Ty Lue said. “Everything he’s done for the game, he’s the one guy we follow and we listen to.”
Over time, Popovich burnished a reputation as the ultimate players’ coach, a designation that spanned generations. He could relate as easily to a grizzled 39-year-old basketball savant like Chris Paul as he could to a 21-year-old rising star in Victor Wembanyama.
“Every coach has their own personality, but he’s not the best coach of all time for nothing,” Wembanyama said. “He brings something special to the table.”
Popovich’s particular vernacular – peppered with phrases like “pounding the rock,” “corporate knowledge,” and “appropriate fear” – became the Spurs’ lingua franca.
“29 years. Coach, thank you for your wisdom, for your leadership, for the culture you created…But most importantly for being a great and inspiring person. It was an honor to be a part of those 29 years. Wishing you the best on your new chapter,” Wembanyama said on X Friday afternoon.
Popovich coached his first game with the Spurs on Dec. 10, 1996, dropping a 93-76 decision at Phoenix. His final game came Halloween night of 2024, when he led the Spurs to a 106-98 victory at Utah.
In between, Popovich fashioned an NBA legacy that will be impossible to duplicate.
To those who played for him, Popovich was a father figure, a taskmaster, a teacher, sometimes a friend, sometimes an undeniable pain in the neck. He was a lecturer, a philosopher, a historian, a politics junkie, a tireless social justice advocate, an Elvis Presley fan.
“His impact has been immeasurable,” Elliott said. “And it’s more than just basketball.”
Even as his career marched on toward its inevitable place in Springfield, where Popovich was enshrined as a Naismith Hall of Famer in 2023, he never considered himself a titan of the sport.
“I’m a Division-III guy,” Popovich once said. “I’m not a Hall of Fame guy.”
2023 inductee Gregg Popovich shakes hand with hall of fame member and former player Tin Duncan during the 2023 Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Induction at Symphony Hall on August 12, 2023 in Springfield, Massachusetts. (Photo by Mike Lawrie/Getty Images)
As of Friday, Popovich is now a semi-retired Hall of Fame guy.
Back in 2013, before the Spurs were set to face a white-knuckle Game 7 against Miami in the NBA Finals, a reporter asked the then 64-year-old Popovich if he had considered what he might do once the series was over.
Retirement, Popovich scoffed at the time, was overrated.
“You can only grow so many tomatoes,” Popovich said.
A job well done, a Hall-of-Fame career in the books, a city forever grateful, Popovich is set to find out how patient of a gardener he can possibly be with basketball still in his blood.
The Spurs, meanwhile, are about to discover what life without Popovich really means.
“There’s never been anyone like him, and there will never be anyone like him again,” Elliott said. “You can’t replace that.”
By Jeff McDonald, Staff writer, via San Antonio Express-News
