Strike 3: Gregg Popovich is one of the best coaches – if not the best coach – in NBA history. Now that he’s retiring, the next coach of the San Antonio Spurs – acting head coach Mitch Johnson has been named the successor – has some big sneakers to fill.
It’s always tough to follow a legend. The expectations are through the roof going in. On the plus side, Johnson can look forward to the (hopeful) return of Victor Wembanyama and will have All-Star De’Aaron Fox for a full season as well. The Spurs are poised to be much improved.
Still, Johnson isn’t a slam dunk hire for the Spurs. His 32-45 record as interim head coach isn’t exactly stellar. Now that he’s full time, he becomes the third youngest head coach in NBA history. His resumé is at this moment, quite a bit short.
Naming Johnson the permanent HC so quickly comes as a bit of a surprise, given the available candidates out there. That list would include former Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone. Having nurtured the career of Nikola Jokic for more than a decade and won an NBA title in the lead chair, Malone has a significantly better resumé than the 38-year-old Johnson.
Perhaps the word around the league is that Malone is a wound a little too tight for a young team like the Spurs. Maybe taking a year off will make the former Nuggets coach a little more marketable around the league.
Even after passing on Malone, it comes as a bit of a surprise that the Spurs – with Popovich now serving strictly as the president of basketball operations in San Antonio – didn’t decide this was the time to get bold, and do something that could be considered borderline revolutionary.
They could have made history by bringing back former Popovich assistant coach Becky Hammon to take the reins. Her resumé dwarf’s Johnsons.
Hammon, already a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, would obviously be the first female head coach in NBA history. That barrier alone has likely scared away more than one potential suitor. But there’s absolutely no questioning her qualifications. They’re far superior to Johnson’s.
As a player, Hammon was an All-American at Colorado State, an All-WNBA performer, one of the Top 50 WNBA players of all-time and had her number retired.
As a coach, she was an assistant for Popovich for seven seasons, coached San Antonio’s summer league team to a title and served as the Spurs acting head coach after Popovich was kicked out of a game in 2021. NBA great Pau Gasol put it this way: “I’ve played under two of the sharpest basketball minds ever in Phil Jackson and Gregg Popovich. I’m telling you – Becky Hammon can coach almost at the level of those NBA coaches, period.”
Hammon interviewed for the general manager post in Milwaukee in 2017 and in Portland for the head coaching gig in 2021 when the job went to Chauncey Billups. She’s been the head coach of the Las Vegas Aces of the WNBA since 2021 and has won two WNBA championships.
Meanwhile, Mitch Johnson played in the G-League and in Europe for three seasons before becoming a coach. He’s been a Spurs assistant since 2019, and this is obviously his first head coaching gig.
Those resumés aren’t even comparable. Maybe Johnson will become a top flight NBA head coach. Maybe someday he’ll have the same kind of coaching resume Becky Hammon already has.
Strike 3: Becky Hammon should have replaced Gregg Popovich Mile High Sports.
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