It’s a new era on the court for the San Antonio Spurs, but on the sidelines things are the same as they ever were. Gregg Popovich, now in his 25th season as the team’s head coach, still runs the show, and on Saturday night he added another bit of history to his legendary resume.
The Spurs jumped out to an early double-digit lead against the Chicago Bulls, and cruised to a 120-104 win. It improved their record to 23-20 on the season, but more importantly it was the 1,300th of Popovich’s career. He is just the third coach in NBA history to reach that milestone.
Popovich was already in third place on the all-time regular season wins list, and is now closing in on the top spot. Lenny Wilkens is in second place with 1,332 wins, while Don Nelson currently occupies first with 1,335 victories to his name, which means Popovich needs just 36 more wins to become the all-time winningest coach in regular season history. Even if the Spurs won out, that wouldn’t be possible this season, but Popovich should have no problem accomplishing the feat in 2022, assuming he doesn’t retire.
It’s also important to note this is just the regular season wins list. If you include playoff games, Popovich already has more wins than any other head coach. The Spurs have missed the playoffs just twice in Popovich’s two-plus decades in charge, and during that time he’s racked up 170 playoff wins, for a total of 1,470 wins all told.
With five NBA titles, three Coach of the Year Awards and a sterling reputation, Popovich was already going to go down as one of the best coaches of all time. Adding the official wins title will only further cement that status.