San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich leaves legacy of speaking up against injustice

San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich’s retirement took the winningest and perhaps the greatest head coach in NBA history off the sideline. Also gone but certainly not forgotten is how Popovich used his platform to speak against racial, social and political injustice.

“He was probably one of the first coaches of the modern generation to really speak out on politics and social injustices,” Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, a former Spurs guard under Popovich, said. “One of my favorite coaches is [former University of North Carolina men’s basketball coach] Dean Smith. Dean Smith in the ’60’s helped break down the racial barriers in the South by refusing to take his team to certain places to stay or eat. I think Pop is kind of in the Dean Smith mold of seeing the bigger picture beyond sports. Those are the coaches who really stand out to me.”

The Spurs announced the retirement of Popovich from coaching on May 2 after 33 years as head coach. The Naismith Hall of Famer is the NBA’s all-time leader in coaching victories with 1,422 regular-season wins. The three-time NBA Coach of the Year led the Spurs to five championships. The 76-year-old also ranked third all-time in playoff wins.

Popovich coached a Spurs dynasty that included NBA championships in 1999, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014, Hall of Famers David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and future Hall of Famer Kawhi Leonard. With NBA All-Star center Victor Wembanyama on his roster, Popovich coached just five games this season before suffering a stroke at the team facility on Nov. 2, 2024. He never returned to the sidelines.

Popovich will remain with the Spurs as president of basketball operations and was replaced by Mitch Johnson, who was the team’s interim coach this season.

“It’s a sad day. It’s also an encouraging day,” Kerr said on May 2. “This is a natural transition for him organizationally for him to move into his next role. It also gives him the space and the time he needs to recover from the health issues.

“So, I got a lot of mixed emotions… Mainly, my love for Pop. My empathy for what he has gone through with the Spurs organization. All of the above. It’s a very emotional day for everybody involved. Thank you, Pop.”

Houston Rockets head coach Ime Udoka, a former Spurs guard and assistant coach under Popovich, said on May 2: “It’s a bittersweet day, obviously, for all of us. But I’m happy he’s in a good place. And I’m happy he’s good with his family. Special day. Special person. One of the best to do it. I’m glad I got a chance to work with him and call him a friend.”

Popovich also had an impact on the world by unapologetically using his platform to speak about injustices. What made his outspokenness even more unique was he was a white man speaking for marginalized people who didn’t look like him.

Former San Antonio Spurs forward LaMarcus Aldridge once described Popovich as “colorblind” to Andscape. Popovich was also known for usually having a roster laden with international talent.

“When you get to know him, color doesn’t matter to him,” Aldridge said about Popovich. “He can relate. People can say that he and Stephen Jackson are really close. Stephen Jackson is the opposite of being from Europe. It doesn’t matter what you are. He connects with all people … He’s so open-minded to everything.”

Popovich once voiced respect for San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and his national anthem protest. These were words from a man who attended the U.S. Air Force Academy and received a bachelor’s degree in Soviet Studies. He served five years of required active duty in the Air Force and once considered a career with the CIA.

“A pretty good group of people immediately thought he was disrespecting the military,” Popovich once said. “That had nothing to do with his protest. In fact, he was able to do what he did because of what the military does for us. Most thinking people understand that, but there is always going to be an element that wants to jump on a bandwagon and that’s what is unfortunate about our country.”

Popovich once took the Spurs to a private screening of the movie “Chi-Raq” with famed film director Spike Lee in attendance. Popovich had former track star John Carlos, who joined Tommie Smith for a controversial Black Power salute on the medal podium during the 1968 Mexico Olympics, speak to his team. Popovich once gave his players the book “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, which was written as a letter to the author’s teenage son about the reality, emotions and symbolism of being an African American in the United States. Popovich also took his team to a showing of “The Birth of a Nation,” a film Parker invested in about Nat Turner, who spearheaded a historic slave rebellion in 1831, and to see the famed play “Hamilton” in New York City.

“It’s pretty obvious that the national stain of slavery continues to permeate our social system in this country,” Popovich once told Andscape. “People want to ignore it, don’t want to talk about it, because it’s inconvenient.”

Popovich also described race in America as the “elephant in the room.” He believed white Americans didn’t understand the pain and stress of being African American. Popovich recalled hearing stories from Black assistant coaches of how they had to talk to their children about how to deal with police if confronted. He said that was something he as a white man never had to do with his two children.

“It’s easier for white people because we haven’t lived that experience. It’s difficult for many white people to understand the day-to-day feeling that many Black people have to deal with,” Popovich once said. “I didn’t talk to my kids about how to act in front of a policeman when you get stopped. I didn’t have to do that. All of my Black friends have done that. There’s something that’s wrong about that, and we all know that.”

Popovich also spoke strongly on what he believed were injustices in American government, most notably against President Donald Trump. During an Oct. 27, 2024, press conference, Popovich described Trump as “pathetic” and accused him of fostering a culture of racism and division in America. Popovich also added that he believed Trump validated racism, which normalized and legitimized discrimination in the process.

Popovich also spoke regularly about gun control. In 2023, Popovich gave an unprompted, nine-minute speech lobbying for gun control legislation in America and criticizing “cowardly legislators who are selfish” before a game in Dallas. Popovich criticized Republican legislators in Texas and Tennessee and also expressed disdain toward the 2023 expulsion of Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson from the Tennessee House of Representative. The two Black Democrats led gun control demonstrations on the chamber floor following a school shooting in Nashville. Popovich called gun control resistance legislation an attempt to “cloak all this stuff [in] the myth of the Second Amendment.”

“I just wondered because we have a governor and lieutenant governor and an attorney general that made it easier to have more guns,” Popovich said, referring to Texas politicians. “That was a response to our kids getting murdered. I just thought that was a little bit strange decision. It’s just me, though.”

So how did Popovich become so conscious, caring and vocal?

The son of a Croatian father and Serbian mother became naturally educated about other cultures by growing up in racially diverse East Chicago, Indiana, 18 miles from downtown Chicago. According to the 2010 United States census, East Chicago was 42.9% Black, 35.5% white and 19.1% other races. Popovich has credited his military background for making him conscious of the world. He also learned more about the world when he played basketball for the U.S. Armed Forces Basketball Team in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.

“Once you get to know him and know about his upbringing and his background, being raised in [a suburb of] Gary, Indiana, in a multi-cultural neighborhood…,” Udoka said. “He always talked about the neighbors he had — an Italian family, a Jewish family, a Black family. Everything around him was immigrants, his being one as well. That is a big part of it, the melting pot he grew up around in the area and the people he was around and raised with.

“That is the core of who he is. It is the right thing to do regardless of whether you are Black, white or whatever.”

Kerr has also spoken out about social injustice, racism, gun violence and political issues during his tenure coaching the Warriors. He credited Popovich for inspiring him to use his platform to speak out.

“I was 100% inspired by Pop to have the courage to speak out and take the hits that you do,” Kerr said. “I met Pop when I signed with the Spurs in 1999 during the lockout. You can see dedication to his country. A proud Air Force grad. From the first national anthem (played at a Spurs game), I saw him standing at attention towards the American flag. I know how much he loved his country and I knew how much his Air Force experience meant to him.

“That conviction combined with, let’s say, the shenanigans of this country politically — really all the BS started right around that time, the turn of the century … between social media and buffoonery politically, we just got into this current era where everybody is screaming against each other. He already had the conviction. But he saw what was happening and he wanted to make sure he spoke up.”