{"id":614944,"date":"2026-04-18T11:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T11:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/614944\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T11:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T11:30:08","slug":"how-gregg-popovich-plays-a-pivotal-role-in-spurs-victor-wembanyama-nba-playoffs-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/614944\/","title":{"rendered":"How Gregg Popovich plays a pivotal role in Spurs, Victor Wembanyama NBA Playoffs run"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nothing will keep a man away from his passion. In November of 2024, Coach Gregg Popovich had to slowly let go of his beloved head coaching post in the San Antonio Spurs<\/a> system. Coach Mitch Johnson took over in helping develop Victor Wembanyama<\/a> and Stephon Castle. They also added De’Aaron Fox to the squad and are now off to the NBA Playoffs.<\/p>\n

One might think that Coach Popovich would have fully called it quits but he has still been helping the Spurs.<\/p>\n

How Coach Popovich advices Wembanyama, Spurs in the NBA Playoffs<\/p>\n

Whether it is because he is having withdrawals from his 30-year career or really wanted to lead Victor Wembanyama to another Spurs dynasty, Coach Gregg Popovich has not stopped. He is still very adamant at helping his squad and it paid off as they have 62 wins as the second seed entering the NBA Playoffs.<\/p>\n

Coach Popovich is in contact with nearly all of the Spurs and they revealed what pieces of advice they have taken from him, via Jared Weiss of The Athletic.<\/a><\/p>\n

“He looks amazing. He\u2019s doing great. It\u2019s always good to see him. He stays in touch. He texts me or calls me from time to time, probably every other day. But at the same time, he\u2019s very encouraging, telling me that he\u2019s proud of me and things like that. I mean, he\u2019s definitely still himself. He\u2019s still sharp. He\u2019s still very much Pop. He has not skipped a beat at all,” Keldon Johnson declared.<\/p>\n

Notably, Coach Mitch Johnson is still following the same formula that Coach Popovich used to win five Larry O’Brien trophies. He has a dominant big man like Wembanyama, Tim Duncan, and David Robinson. His guards are also crafty playmakers capable of defending multiple positions or popping off on offense like Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, and Bruce Bowen.<\/p>\n

Coach Popovich even dropped some advice to Stephon Castle entering the NBA Playoffs.<\/p>\n

“He\u2019s helped me and a lot of the other guys on the team, just having somebody to talk to. Whether games are going good, games are going bad, just knowing Pop, he\u2019ll always tell you the real. Just keep in my head. Not really going off result-based things. Really just trying to use the process and understanding what got us in those positions,” the second-year Spurs guard said.<\/p>\n

There will always be a soft spot that has the Spurs etched on it in Coach Popovich’s heart. Hopefully, he is able to celebrate Wembanyama, Castle, and Johnson winning their own championship in the coming NBA Playoffs.<\/p>\n

More Spurs News:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nothing will keep a man away from his passion. In November of 2024, Coach Gregg Popovich had to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-614944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}