Popovich stepping down means Tomlin turns into the longest-tenured present US main professional coach

Gregg Popovich stepped down. Mike Tomlin moved up.

The choice by Popovich to finish his run as coach of the San Antonio Spurs — it was introduced by the crew on Friday, together with the promotion of Mitch Johnson to the job — meant that the longest lively 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’s Tomlin’s flip.

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 Warmth coach Erik Spoelstra — who began in that job in 2008 — now turns into the coach with the longest present tenure along with his crew 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 Main League Baseball, 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 as coach of the Spurs in December 1996, there have been 303 teaching modifications within the NBA.

A handful of these have 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 through the Popovich teaching period. Sacramento did it 16 instances. Milwaukee, Cleveland, Detroit, the Los Angeles Lakers, New York and Washington all made 15 modifications in that span. And when Phoenix hires Mike Budenholzer’s alternative, it’ll be 15 modifications by the Suns as effectively.

The photographs 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, through 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 lively coaches turns into Milwaukee’s Rivers (1,162 common season, 1,277 together with playoffs). Rivers’ path to catching Popovich for the regular-season report would imply he’d must common 52 regular-season wins in every of the subsequent 5 years.

Indiana’s Rick Carlisle strikes as much as No. 2 amongst lively coaches with 993 regular-season wins, adopted by Miami’s Spoelstra with 787.

Wins with one crew

No person had extra with one crew, clearly, and this report 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 crew.

Spoelstra is 13 wins away from 800 with the Warmth (excluding playoffs), so he’ll virtually definitely be a part of that membership subsequent season. However he’d nonetheless be at the least a decade away from even entering into the neighborhood of Popovich’s win quantity with the Spurs.

File vs. different coaches

There are 24 coaches who went in opposition to Popovich at the least 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 aren’t precisely slouches, in fact. Jackson is within the Corridor of Fame. Donovan is being enshrined this yr. It’s affordable to suppose Kerr and Spoelstra — coaches who each have a number of NBA championships — will discover their means there as effectively.

Most vs. Pop

An inventory of the gamers who had essentially the most factors, rebounds, assists, steals and wins in opposition to San Antonio through the Popovich period (together with playoffs):

Factors — Kobe Bryant 2,278; Dirk Nowitzki 2,252; Kevin Durant 1,876; LeBron James 1,653; Chris Paul 1,516.

Rebounds — Dirk Nowitzki 941; Shaquille O’Neal 769; Shawn Marion 675; Zach Randolph 633; Kevin Garnett 610.

Assists — Steve Nash 720; Chris Paul 685; Russell Westbrook 574; Jason Kidd 560; LeBron James 457.

Steals — Chris Paul 159; Jason Kidd 136; Russell Westbrook 132; Kobe Bryant 124; Shawn Marion 122.

Wins performed in — Derek Fisher 54; Dirk Nowitzki 44; Kobe Bryant 43; Chris Paul 41; Kevin Durant 41.

Losses performed in — Dirk Nowitzki 67; Steve Nash 56; Vince Carter 55; Zach Randolph 53; Shawn Marion 52.

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 could be anticipated, it was the Huge Three of Tim Duncan (1,643 together with playoffs), Tony Parker (1,424) and Manu Ginobili (1,275).

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