Gregg Popovich is one of the greatest coaches in NBA history.
His resume can stack up next to anyone’s: the sustained excellence of 20 seasons of 50+ wins which has given him a .686 win percentage, the five NBA titles, and maybe most impressive of all is small-market San Antonio into an NBA franchise that was feared on the court and modeled off it.
And, of course, there are all the wins — 1,211 of them to be exact after the Spurs knocked off the struggling Suns Tuesday night.
That win moved Popovich past Pat Riley into fourth on the all-time coaching wins list.
With tonight's victory, Coach Popovich moves into fourth place for all-time wins in NBA history.#GoSpursGo pic.twitter.com/Xq9rNpOJqX
— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) December 12, 2018
Popovich needs just 10 more wins to tie Utah legend Jerry Sloan for third on the list, something that will happen well before the All-Star break.
Will he coach long enough to catch Don Nelson or Lenny Wilkins at the top of the coaching-wins leaderboard (it would take more than 100 additional wins)? Only Popovich knows that, although the speculation around the NBA is probably not (many expect him to retire after the 2019-20 season, although nobody knows for sure).
Whatever happens, Popovich’s place on the all-time wins list just adds to a Hall of Fame legacy.