As the Spurs move past the midway point of the season, there is no timeline for legendary coach Gregg Popovich’s return to the bench.
Popovich has been out since he suffered a mild stroke before a Nov 2 game, and there remains no timetable for him to return to the sidelines, the Spurs’ CEO RC Buford told Joe Varden of The Athletic.
“His improvement continues to get better, (but) I don’t know that we have any way to judge the clock,” Buford said in Paris Wednesday, where San Antonio will play the Indiana Pacers twice this week. “Predicting what’s to come is just a function of where Pop’s rehab goes.”
Spurs interim coach Mitch Johnson and multiple players — such as Chris Paul and Victor Wembanyama — have said they have been in regular contact with Popovich throughout his recovery process.
“I’ve seen him quite a bit,” Johnson said. “So those conversations are typical in terms of the things we talked about regarding our team trying to get better, coaching backwards, what happened in the last game or what are we coming out of? And then, you know, obviously looking ahead and what we’re walking into. So with these unique circumstances that’s out there, especially for people that are not around day to day, to understand, but our interactions and conversations in that regard have not changed really that much.”
Popovich made clear in a statement he released last month that he wants to return to the bench. “No one is more excited to see me return to the bench than the talented individuals who have been leading my rehabilitation process,” Popovich said with some self-deprecating humor in that statement.
Popovich is a Hall of Famer, the NBA’s all-time winningest coach, a five-time NBA champion and he coached Team USA to an Olympic gold medal in Tokyo.
At 19-22, the Spurs sit 12th in the West, two games out of the final play-in spot in the conference. This is despite a breakout season from Wembanyama, where he is averaging 24.4 points and 10.8 rebounds a game while being the clear frontrunner to win Defensive Player of the Year.
