{"id":688678,"date":"2026-05-23T03:30:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T03:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/688678\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T03:30:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T03:30:17","slug":"gregg-popovich-victor-wembanyamas-conversation-ahead-of-west-finals-game-3-shown-in-trending-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/688678\/","title":{"rendered":"Gregg Popovich, Victor Wembanyama&#8217;s Conversation Ahead of West Finals Game 3 Shown in Trending Video"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">San Antonio Spurs legendary former coach Gregg Popovich and star center Victor Wembanyama were seen having a conversation ahead of the team&#8217;s Game 3 matchup with the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Popovich served as San Antonio&#8217;s head coach for 29 seasons, capturing five championships and setting the NBA&#8217;s <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong css-lu48cp\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/news\/nba-coaches-with-most-wins-in-history\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">all-time record<\/a> for coaching wins. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Wembanyama played under him throughout the beginning of his Spurs tenure from 2023-24. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Popovich eventually took a leave of absence from the organization after suffering a stroke in Nov. 2024, later\u00a0<a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong css-lu48cp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/44967466\/sources-popovich-done-coaching-spurs-staying-front-office\">transitioning<\/a>\u00a0to a full-time position as San Antonio&#8217;s president of basketball operations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Still, the 77-year-old has remained around the team and <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong css-lu48cp\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/48522561\/gregg-popovich-addresses-spurs-prior-playoff-series-vs-portland\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">addressed<\/a> the roster prior to the beginning of their current playoff run.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">San Antonio is tied 1-1 with Oklahoma City in the Western Conference Finals through two contests, winning Game 1 on the road before dropping Game 2 on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Wembanyama has thrived on both ends of the floor during the 2026 playoffs, averaging 22.1 points and 12.3 rebounds to go along with 4.0 blocks per game. He&#8217;s shooting 53.8 percent from the field and 36.0 percent from behind the arc while attempting 4.2 triples on a nightly basis. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Game 3 between the Spurs and Thunder is on Friday at 8:30 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Antonio Spurs legendary former coach Gregg Popovich and star center Victor Wembanyama were seen having a conversation&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":688679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-688678","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\/688678","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=688678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/688679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}