The San Antonio Spurs’ head teaching search didn’t final lengthy. Shortly after ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Gregg Popovich would step down as head coach, he tweeted that the Spurs are hiring his substitute, Mitch Johnson.
Breaking: The San Antonio Spurs are hiring assistant Mitch Johnson because the franchise’s subsequent head coach, sources inform ESPN. Johnson has been an assistant in Spurs program for a decade, took over as interim coach in November – and now earns job as Gregg Popovich’s successor. pic.twitter.com/43tpK5gEA9
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) Might 2, 2025
Johnson acted because the Spurs’ head coach after Popovich left the workforce in November. He completed the yr with a 31-45 document, coping with accidents to his star gamers Victor Wembanyama and De’Aaron Fox. In accordance with Charania, the Spurs prioritized continuity with the Johnson hiring. The through-line was laid out by Popovich, normal supervisor Brian Wright, and CEO RC Buford.
Johnson joined the Spurs within the 2016 offseason, the place he spent 3 seasons as an assistant for the Austin Spurs from 2016-2019. He was promoted to hitch the San Antonio bench in 2020, changing Tim Duncan after he stepped down as assistant coach. Johnson performed 4 seasons at Stanford College from 2005-2009, and performed one season with the Tulsa 66ers G League workforce.
He’ll exchange Popovich, who was away from the workforce for almost all of the 2024-25 season after struggling a gentle stroke on November 2. Charania experiences that the coach had been current on the Spurs’ facility just lately, however concluded that he couldn’t “transfer ahead with the taxing grind of being an NBA head coach.” He experiences that Popovich had been making regular progress from his stroke in November and one other well being scare in April. Popovich will transition to a brand new function because the workforce’s full-time president of basketball operations.
