San Antonio Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich is unsure whether he will renew his coaching job once his contract expires at the end of this season.
“I don’t know the answer,” – Popovich said when asked if the will still be Spurs coach next season.
Popovich tends to avoid media questions, so it’s hard to know exactly what he intends to do after this season. But his team is currently tied for the fifth seed and has won seven of the last ten games. While he could retire after his contract expires, the team’s owner R.C. Buford has it clear that Popovich will have his job available for as long as he wants.
“He’ll coach as long as he wants to coach,” Buford told a New York Times reported after Wednesday’s 105-101 win over the Dallas Mavericks.
Popovich turns 70 close to the end of this month, and he will be only the fourth coach in the league’s history to coach at 70. The others were Bill Bertka, Larry Brown and Hubie Brown and they all retired by 71. With five championships to his name and a winning seasons for 22 of the 23 years he’s been coach for the Spurs, Popovich is the most successful coach in the group.
Whether he chooses to retire is only a matter of time though. As of now, he’s committed to taking Spurs to the playoff and has gigs to coach Team USA in the 2019 FIBA World Cup in China and the Olympics in Tokyo, 2020.
