The NBA has adjusted all-time wins leader Gregg Popovich’s career record as coach of the San Antonio Spurs, removing the 77 games that he missed last season and crediting those wins and losses to new Spurs coach Mitch Johnson.
Popovich’s final record has been reset to 1,390-824, which is where it was entering a game on Nov. 2. That was the day that Popovich had a stroke at the team’s arena in San Antonio and Johnson, one of his assistant coaches, took over as acting coach.
Popovich missed the remainder of the season and Johnson coached the final 77 games, going 32-45. The NBA and the Spurs agreed that it made sense to remove those games from Popovich’s record and credit them to Johnson, who was named head coach when Popovich announced his retirement earlier this year.
“While my love and passion for the game remain, I’ve decided it’s time to step away as head coach,” Popovich said when revealing that decision. He remains in place as Spurs president and is still around the franchise as much as he can.
It is not unprecedented for the NBA to adjust win-loss totals. The NBA made a similar decision regarding the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1979-80 season; Jack McKinney was head coach and was seriously injured in a bicycle accident in November, which led to Paul Westhead taking over on an interim basis. Westhead was eventually hired as head coach; the NBA credits McKinney with a 10-4 record that year and Westhead with going 50-18.
The revised numbers do little to affect the NBA record books. Popovich remains the winningest coach in league history, 53 wins ahead of Don Nelson’s 1,335 victories. Popovich’s winning percentage goes up slightly from .621 to .628, which — among coaches with 400 games — is seventh in NBA history behind Phil Jackson, Billy Cunningham, K.C. Jones, Red Auerbach, Steve Kerr and Pat Riley.
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