On July 9, 2023, the Spurs officially announced that the team signed a five-year contract extension with Popovich, with a contract amount of more than 80 million, setting a new NBA record. The Spurs he coached have not been in the playoffs for many years since 2019, and he is also 74 years old, and the fact that the Spurs can offer such a contract shows that the Spurs trust him and his contribution to the Spurs.
Popovich, whose father was Serb and his mother Croat, was of Eastern European descent, his ambition was to be a secret agent, he studied Soviet studies at university, and after graduating from university he worked as a spy in Moscow for a while. Popovich returned to the United States in 1973 to pursue a master's degree in physical education and exercise science at the University of Denver, which laid the foundation for his later teaching.
Popovich started as a college basketball assistant, and their basketball team, Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens, was affiliated with the NCAA Division III and had lost more than 80 straight games before Popovich took over. Popovich quickly carved out an oasis in the basketball desert, taking them to the divisional finals in just three years, and in 1986 he led the team to their first league title. Since then, Popovich has become a little famous in North American basketball circles.
Popovich worked as an assistant coach and team manager before becoming head coach of the Spurs until 1996. Nearly three decades in charge of the Spurs have achieved great success.
Popovich coached the Spurs to five championships, one by the Duncan and David Robinson twin towers combination, and the remaining four by the GDP combination. The GDP portfolio was formed in the 2002-2003 season, retired on June 10, 2019 by the end of 2020, reached the finals five times, and won the championship four times, becoming an important factor in the continued strength of the Spurs after the era of the twin towers.
Popovich not only cultivated a GDP portfolio, but also pushed his own system into the Union. At present, many coaches in the league are under the influence of his system, Steve Kerr of the Warriors, Mike Brown, the head coach of the Kings who only won the best coach in the league this year, etc., a total of more than a dozen coaches are from the Spurs system. From this, it can be seen that Popovich's contribution to basketball is very large.
In the nearly three decades of coaching the Spurs, there have been many classic tactics, such as five-up-five tactics when players are slack and unfocused, and rotational tactics to protect the main players.
In April 2023, Popovich was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and on July 9, he signed another five-year contract to the team, and at the end of the contract, he will coach the Spurs for more than three decades, from an agent to an NBA generation of famous coaches, his legend continues!