Gregg Popovich’s biggest win was making America confront uncomfortable truths

With San Antonio’s 104-102 victory over the Utah Jazz on Saturday night, longtime Spurs coach Gregg Popovich recorded his 1,336th regular-season win to pass Don Nelson for the most in NBA history.

Popovich coached Tim Duncan for almost two decades, never missing the playoffs during a span that included five NBA championships. Under his leadership, the Spurs organization became the league standard for professionalism, respectability and doing things the “right way”, a reputation that rubbed off on San Antonio greats like David Robinson, Manu Ginobli, Kawhi Leonard, Tony Parker, Avery Johnson, Sean Elliott, LaMarcus Aldridge, Patty Mills, DeMar DeRozan, Rudy Gay and countless others.

But what makes Coach Popovich really special, as well as unique, is the way he used his voice and his platform to speak out on injustice, racism, police brutality and the rest of societal ills that plague American society, not only on a daily, personal basis, but a systemic basis. As a white man, in the state of Texas of all places, this not only requires a lot of courage but commands a lot of respect.

Pop had a knack for utilizing NBA press conferences and post-game interviews to express his thoughts and opinions on various topics, often without prompting or provocation.

After George Floyd was murdered, Coach Popovich’s heartfelt address said what a lot of people needed to hear.

“In a strange, counterintuitive sort of way, the best teaching moment of this recent tragedy, I think, was the look on the officer’s face, [during Floyd’s death]. For white people to see how nonchalant, how casual, just how everyday-going-about-his job, so much so that he could just put his left hand in his pocket, wriggle his knee around a little bit to teach this