Gregg Popovich stepped down. Mike Tomlin moved up.
The choice by Popovich to finish his run as coach of the San Antonio Spurs — which was announced by the team on Friday, along with the promotion of Mitch Johnson to the job — meant that the longest energetic tenure by any coach in any of the 4 U.S. main professional sports activities had ended.
Popovich lasted almost 29 years as coach of the Spurs. And now, it is Tomlin’s flip.
[MORE: Is Gregg Popovich the greatest coach in NBA history? His career by the numbers]
Tomlin, the coach of the NFL‘s Pittsburgh Steelers, began in his present position in 2007, so he took over for Popovich because the longevity in-one-place chief among the many main professional leagues.
Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra — who began in that job in 2008 — now turns into the coach with the longest present tenure along with his group within the NBA.
Within the NHL, Tampa Bay‘s Jon Cooper assumed the position of Lightning head coach in 2013; no different coach in that league has had his present job longer. And in MLB, the supervisor with the longest present tenure in a single place is Tampa Bay‘s Kevin Money — employed by the Rays for that job in December 2014.
A variety of change
Since Popovich took over because the Spurs’ coach in December 1996, there have been 303 teaching adjustments within the NBA.
A handful of these had been interims, in place for only a few video games. However on common, different groups modified coaches greater than 10 instances throughout Popovich’s run in San Antonio.
Brooklyn and Memphis modified coaches 17 instances throughout the Popovich teaching period. Sacramento did it 16 instances. Milwaukee, Cleveland, Detroit, the Los Angeles Lakers, New York and Washington all made 15 adjustments in that span. And when Phoenix hires Mike Budenholzer’s substitute, it’ll be 15 adjustments by the Suns as effectively.
The images of stability in these Popovich years: Miami and Utah have modified coaches 4 instances and Dallas has 5 instances.
So far as particular person coaches themselves, throughout the Popovich period 4 totally different coaches — Alvin Gentry, Doc Rivers, Larry Brown and Mike D’Antoni — all coached for 5 totally different franchises.
NBA teaching wins
Popovich is the profession chief in NBA teaching victories with 1,422 within the common season and 1,592 when including within the postseason.
The brand new chief amongst energetic coaches turns into Milwaukee’s Rivers (1,162 regular-season video games, 1,277 together with playoffs). Rivers’ path to catching Popovich for the regular-season file would imply he’d need to common 52 regular-season wins in every of the following 5 years.
Indiana’s Rick Carlisle strikes as much as No. 2 amongst energetic coaches with 993 regular-season wins, adopted by Miami’s Spoelstra with 787.
Wins with one group
No one had extra with one group, clearly, and this file might be very, very protected.
All 1,422 of Popovich’s regular-season wins got here with the Spurs and just one different particular person — Utah’s Jerry Sloan, with 1,127 — has gained greater than 800 with one group.
Spoelstra is 13 wins away from 800 with the Warmth (excluding playoffs), so he’ll virtually definitely be part of that membership subsequent season. However he’d nonetheless be no less than a decade away from even stepping into the neighborhood of Popovich’s win quantity with the Spurs.
Document vs. different coaches
There are 24 coaches who went in opposition to Popovich no less than 30 instances, together with playoff video games. Of these, solely 4 had profitable information in opposition to Popovich. Phil Jackson went 41-30 of their conferences, Steve Kerr went 28-17, Billy Donovan went 19-16 and Spoelstra went 23-22.
They are not precisely slouches, in fact. Jackson is within the Corridor of Fame. Donovan is being enshrined this 12 months. It’s cheap to assume Kerr and Spoelstra — coaches who each have a number of NBA championships — will discover their method there as effectively.
What number of gamers?
The Spurs used 222 gamers throughout Popovich’s tenure with the Spurs, not counting the 77 video games he missed on the finish of this season. Essentially the most: As can be anticipated, it was the Massive Three of Tim Duncan (1,643 together with playoffs), Tony Parker (1,424) and Manu Ginobili (1,275).
Reporting by The Related Press.
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