Gilbert Garcia: Most amazing thing about Popovich’s NBA career — all his wins were with the same team

Gregg Popovich had plenty of options in the spring of 1992. After four years with the San Antonio Spurs as an assistant coach under Larry Brown, he could have followed Brown to a new gig with the Los Angeles Clippers. He also had a solid offer to stay in San Antonio and serve as an assistant to Jerry Tarkanian. The Indiana Pacers were also inquiring about Popovich’s availability. Ultimately, Popovich took a job as an assistant to the legendary Don Nelson of the Golden State Warriors. This is notable because, three decades later, Nelson is the one person standing between Popovich and the NBA record for most career regular season victories. Popovich could pass Nelson’s mark of 1,335 wins within the next few days.

Popovich took the Golden State job for the same reason he took a sabbatical from his head-coaching duties at Pomona-Pitzer in 1986-87 to serve as a volunteer assistant to Brown at the University of Kansas; the same reason he spent the first part of that school year observing the iconic Dean Smith run the North Carolina Tar Heels through their preseason drills. Popovich had an intense love for the game and a voracious appetite to learn more about its nuances. Any chance to gain fresh insights from one of the giants of the game was something he couldn’t pass up. At the same time, the way Popovich handled his departure from San Antonio was telling. You could even call it a foreshadowing of the illustrious career that awaited him with the Spurs. “Intellectually, I know it’s the correct decision to make for me and my family,” Popovich said of his move to the San Francisco Bay Area. “But in my gut, I feel like a dog.” Popovich felt like a dog because he values loyalty, and he appreciated that the Spurs’ organization had enabled him to make the leap from a Division III college program to the NBA. He also had come to love the city of San Antonio.