Gregg Popovich is now going to have many years now to coach French big man Victor Wembanyama.
Popovich, the NBA’s all-time winningest coach, has agreed to a new five-year contract worth more than $80 million to remain with the San Antonio Spurs, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
The deal just surpasses the six-year, $78.5 million contract that Monty Williams signed with the Detroit Pistons earlier this summer.
Popovich has led San Antonio to five NBA championships since the beginning of his tenure in 1996.
In March 2022, the 74-year-old Popovich surpassed Don Nelson for most career wins by a coach in NBA history.
His record currently stands at 1,366 wins and 761 losses.
Popovich, who also is the team’s president of basketball operations, led the Spurs through a 22-consecutive playoff trip streak, which ended in 2019-20.
San Antonio now has had four consecutive losing seasons.
The Spurs and Popovich, who won five titles with Hall of Famer Tim Duncan, are now relying on Wembanyama, who is widely considered to be one of the best basketball prospect of all time, to lead the franchise back to title-contending status.
Despite the Spurs’ 22-60 record last season, Popovich called it one of his most fulfilling years in coaching.
“We enjoyed the season because we had such great guys character-wise that it didn’t matter how many we lost in a row, what mattered was the film session the next day and what we have to do, and they’d be at practice or the next game and try to fulfill everything we wanted them to do,” Popovich said.
“So in a sense, it was one of the most — this will sound strange — more enjoyable years. It was fun in a way, not being on TV much and you just go to work and you don’t worry about results other than players developing and a team understanding going forward.”
