With San Antonio Spurs legend Gregg Popovich stepping down as head coach, Stanford men’s basketball alum Mitch Johnson has been promoted to head coach. Johnson had been an assistant coach on the Spurs since 2019 and before that was an assistant coach on their G-League team in Austin starting in 2016. When Popovich suffered a stroke and had to miss the rest of the 2024-25 season, Johnson took over as interim head coach for the third time of his career. Given all his experience in the organization, it’s no surprise the Spurs decided to take the interim tag off Johnson and promote him.
Popovich is one of the greatest coaches in NBA history, winning five NBA championships and three NBA Coach of the Year awards, all with the Spurs. He coached the likes of David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Kawhi Leonard,and Manu Ginobili. Johnson has big shoes to fill, but he seems prepared and ready to take on the job.
During his time at Stanford from 2005-06 through 2008-09, Johnson averaged 5.3 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 4.1 assists per game. Out of high school he was rated a 3-star prospect. As a junior, he led the Pac-10 in assists per game with 5.2. He had a real knack for distributing the basketball at the point guard position.
For Johnson, this is obviously big for him. He gets a chance to follow in the footsteps of an NBA legend at a franchise that has had a lot of success. It’ll be fun to see how Johnson does and how the Spurs do under him in the coming seasons.
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