SAN ANTONIO -- The Spurs are preparing for their first berth in the NBA Finals without legendary coach Gregg Popovich, but that doesn't mean the team isn't continuing to lean on the Hall of Famer as a championship resource.
Superstar Victor Wembanyama made it a point to seek out Popovich when the team landed back in San Antonio on Saturday after its emotional Game 7 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder that sent the Spurs back to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2014.
"I saw Pop right away when we landed," Wembanyama said. "The emotion was something I haven't felt in a while, I don't even know since when. Coming back down from this is a challenge. We still need to really come back down to Earth and realize we haven't done the hardest [task] yet."
It's a point that Popovich, 77, likely touched on at San Antonio International Airport during his conversation with Wembanyama, which the Frenchman prefers to keep private. When Popovich enters a room at Frost Bank Center or the team's training facility, "You shut the f--- up," Spurs forward and 2025-26 Sixth Man of the Year Keldon Johnson said.
Despite a stroke in November 2024 that effectively ended Popovich's coaching career, the five-time champion coach remains a fixture during practices at Victory Capital Performance Center when he has finished up daily rehabilitation workouts led by Hall of Fame forward Tim Duncan.
But veteran guard De'Aaron Fox pointed out that Popovich isn't the only Hall of Fame resource walking around the building every day as a valued source of knowledge and expertise on the championship stage. Current CEO R.C. Buford, the team's former general manager and two-time NBA Executive of the Year, is also a trusted voice within the organization along with Duncan, Manu Ginobili, David Robinson and a host of other Spurs all-time greats such as Sean Elliott and Bruce Bowen.
"It's great," Fox said. "Not even just Pop, just the organization as a whole. It's a lot of people walking through this building that have been there and done that. We could just have practice, and Manu is there or Tim is there. We have these guys who have won multiple championships and been to the mountaintop multiple times. You can ask them anything.
"Obviously, Pop is going to come in. He's going to speak his mind. He comes to shootarounds, practices. You'll see him here and there. It can be something as small as boxing someone out on a free throw or one extra pass that happened at this point of the game that could have changed the game.
'It's just great having those types of people in your ear. They're not saying it because it made them successful. They want to see other people be successful. That's a great thing to have, especially throughout the course of a long year and in a long Finals run."
Current Spurs coach Mitch Johnson appreciates the continued tutelage as much as the players do. Johnson took over as interim head coach after Popovich's stroke last season and led the team to a 32-45 record. Even during the early days of Popovich's rehabilitation, Johnson fielded constant calls from Popovich, who is now the Spurs' director of basketball operations and has jokingly nicknamed himself "El Jefe."
Popovich finished his coaching career as the NBA's wins leader (1,422 regular-season victories). He earned NBA Coach of the Year three times and ranks third in career playoff wins as one of five coaches to win at least five championships.
Johnson, meanwhile, joined the organization in 2016 as an assistant for San Antonio's G League affiliate team, the Austin Spurs, and was promoted in 2019 as an assistant on Popovich's bench. Although the dynamic of the relationship has changed somewhat due to their current roles, Johnson said the core of their bond remains unchanged.
"The relationship has stayed the same in terms of feedback, discussion, challenging each other, me asking him a lot of questions, him giving me a lot of wisdom," Johnson said. "He's a pretty good resource for what I've been walking through since October and up until now. I cannot have created a better rhythm or build-out of him being a constant resource for me, but then also totally giving me the freedom and runway to try to roll this thing out in my own reflection as myself. That's pretty valuable.
"To be honest, I don't know if anyone's ever had that opportunity that I've had this year. I don't take that for granted. It's not lost on me the impact he's had, while also empowering me to be myself. He, R.C., the whole family, people that have been in our organization for a long time, have really set an environment of how one operates and interacts with each other in our building and within our program. It allows people to hopefully feel valued and be themselves while also understanding how competitive and how hard we have to work to be where we want to be."