Gregg Popovich is stepping down from the head coach position for the San Antonio Spurs after 29 seasons. The 76-year-old has dealt with health issues and missed most of his final season with the Spurs after suffering a minor stroke.
Popovich will be moving into a new role as San Antonio’s president of basketball operations and will be replaced by interim head coach Mitch Johnson on a permanent basis, the team announced on May 2, 2025.
Popovich said in a statement released by the Spurs, “While my love and passion for the game remain, I’ve decided it’s time to step away as head coach. I’m forever grateful to the wonderful players, coaches, staff and fans who allowed me to serve them as the Spurs head coach and am excited for the opportunity to continue to support the organization, community and city that are so meaningful to me.”
Spurs Managing Partner Peter J. Holt added in a statement, “Coach Pop’s extraordinary impact on our family, San Antonio, the Spurs and the game of basketball is profound. His accolades and awards don’t do justice to the impact he has had on so many people. He is truly one-of-one as a person, leader and coach. Our entire family, alongside fans from across the globe, are grateful for his remarkable 29-year run as the head coach of the San Antonio Spurs.”
Here’s what you need to know about Gregg Popovich’s family, including his late wife, children and parents:
1. Gregg Popovich’s Wife, Erin Popovich, Died in 2018
Popovich was married to Erin Conboy Popovich for 42 years. She died in 2018. In a statement announcing her death, Spurs General Manager RC Buford said, “We mourn the loss of Erin. She was a strong, wonderful, kind, intelligent woman who provided love, support and humor to all of us.”
According to ESPN, Erin Popovich died after battling a long illness. Gregg and Erin Popovich were married when he was working as an assistant coach at the Air Force Academy, where her father was a former athletic trainer, according to ESPN.
Popovich’s daughter, Jill, talked in a 2020 video about an endowment in her name at the American College of Chest Physicians, saying, “My mom never complained about her own struggles, it was as if there wasn’t anything happening.”
The Erin Popovich Endowment with the CHEST Foundation help with the fight against interstitial lung disease.
Jill Popovich said in the video, “When we learned about my mom’s diagnosis, we didn’t understand it. We didn’t have the resources, they just weren’t out there. There was just a little bit out there on the internet and it was scary. It didn’t seem to match what was going on with my mom.”
2. Gregg Popovich Has 2 Children, a Daughter, Jill Popovich, & a Son, Micky Popovich
Gregg Popovich has two children, including his daughter, Jill Popovich and his son, Micky Popovich. He also has two grandchildren.
Popovich opened up about his family during his Hall of Fame induction speech, saying, “My wife Erin of 42 years was our center of gravity. She was our rock and made everything worthwhile and meaningful.”
He said, “In her place now, our family has done a great job of keeping it going. My son Micky, is here, an artist and musician from Seattle. … My daughter, Jill, who has taken over the mantle and keeps us all on the straight and narrow. She doesn’t talk to me about trades as much as my wife did.”
Popovich called the “stars of the show,” his grandkids. “I tell my son and my daughter, ‘I love ya,’ it’s not that it’s gone away, but you guys are a little bit boring now. There’s nothing else I can give you, you’re on your own. Get out of here, give me the kids, you know, that’s what it’s all about.”
3. Popovich Was Raised in Indiana to Serbian-Croatian Immigrant Parents
Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via GettySan Antonio Spurs Gregg Popovich gets a technical foul during the second quarter against the Detroit Pistons on December 3, 1999.
Popovich is the son of Raymond Popovich and Katherine Popovich. His parents were immigrants, his mother from Croatia and his father from Serbia.
He told The Undefeated, according to Essentially Sports, “I grew up in an integrated area,. We lived in a project called Sunnyside. Everyone had jobs in the steel mill. There was a Puerto Rican family, a Black family and Czechoslovakian family, a Serbian family, whatever. Everybody was fine because everybody had a job. It kind of does boil down to that. If you’re disenfranchised, you got no job, you got no hope, you got nothing, bad things are going to start to happen. It’s not just America, it’s all over the world. Maybe that’s where I started to be aware of things.”
His parents divorced when he was in the fifth grade and he moved with his mother to the rural town of Merrillville, according to the Express-News.
4. Popovich Kept His Family Mostly Out of the Spotlight During His Coaching Career
Popovich has often talked about “family business” when referring to the Spurs organization, but he has tried to keep his own family out of the spotlight duirng his career.
Long before he became the NBA’s winningest coach, he drew a firm line between public and private. He repeatedly declined feature stories and TV specials that would’ve taken viewers into his home, insisting the court was the only spotlight he was interested in.
“No cameraman or reporter has stepped foot into Popovich’s house for the obligatory coach’s home-life feature. Erin rarely attends games and has declined every interview request since her husband became Spurs GM in 1994,” ESPN wrote in 2012.
The San Antonio Express-News wrote after Erin Popovich’s death, “Most of us never saw Erin Popovich. We heard tales of her generosity and her spirit, and we knew people who spoke of her with immense respect. But she did not sit courtside. She did not take the stage during championship celebrations. She did not go on road trips.”
Popovich was known for deflecting the attention away from himself. Fox Sports’ Melissa Rohlin wrote after his Hall of Fame induction, “Any reporter who spends time around the team quickly learns an important lesson: Don’t ask Popovich a question about himself. You’ll get a horrible answer. Or a scowl.”
He said during his Hall of Fame induction speech, “I have a family. People think that I just do basketball. I don’t really like it that much. Basketball doesn’t love us back, does it? We use it like a bar of soap, right? It pays our bills. It gives us a wonderful life. But I don’t remember it saying, ‘I love you, Pop.’ It’s different. It’s the family.”
5. Popovich Stressed the Importance of Family With His Players & Staff
Popovich has also stressed the importance of family with his players and staff. Terry Porter, who played for the Spurs under Popovich for three seasons, told The Athletic after Popovich’s announcement, “Players believed Pop cared about them individually before he cared about them as basketball players,. It was never just about basketball for Pop. He values family — your kids, your wife — and that helps with the buy-in, the trust.”
Kevin Durant, who played for Popovich as part of the U.S. Men’s National Team, told The Athletic about his Olympics experiences, “We would have these dinners, and just shoot the breeze about life. We would talk about vacations, wine, family, what life meant. When you are with somebody like that, a person who cares about all those things on top of wanting you to be the best player you can be, then you want to go to work with that person, be around that person. You know how when you meet a good friend, someone where things just flow organically? Pop has that feel.”
At Popovich’s Hall of Fame induction, Spurs legend Tony Parker called him a “second dad.”
During her Hall of Fame induction speech in 2023, Becky Hammon, who coached as an assistant on his staff, talked about how important he was to her. Hammon said, “You’re a man of principal and excellence. I knew you weren’t trying to be courageous when you hired me, but you did something nobody else in professional sports has ever done.”
She added, “You display excellence, you expect excellence and model how to become excellent, in your everyday routine and how you go about your work. You spoke courage into me with a phone call as I was getting ready to coach that first Summer League team in 2015. You said, ‘Just be you. You’re going to be great.’ And you’ve texted me that, I don’t even know how many times you’ve actually texted me that. ‘Just be you. Just be you. Just be you.’ And you’ve changed the trajectory of my life and of so many other girls and women. Thank you, I love you.”
Robert Horry talked on the All the Smoke podcast about how Popovich put family first, saying, “I remember my daughter was sick, in my last year in San Antonio. And she went into the hospital and Pops was like, ‘Don’t come back until she’s out of the hospital.’ … Family is the most important thing. And that’s the one thing that you have to give it up to the Pop and the San Antonio Spurs organization. They know basketball is a business … but that’s not the most important thing.”
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