Gregg Popovich Had Surprising Impact on Career of Pacers' Rick Carlisle

After a November stroke forced him to miss the rest of the 2024-25 season, former San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich officially retired from that role, opening the door for interim head coach Mitch Johnson to take over as the club's permanent replacement for Popovich.

Popovich, who had served as the club's head coach for 29 seasons, will now only work in a front office capacity for the franchise as team president alongside general manager R.C Buford.

Across his tenure in San Antonio, the 76-year-old notched a 1,422-869 regular season record. That 1,422 regular season win tally is an NBA record — although he missed most of the Spurs' 34-48 run in 2024-25. In the playoffs, Popovich has gone 170-114, but has missed the last six playoffs.

Updated ESPN story on assistant coach Mitch Johnson succeeding Gregg Popovich as the San Antonio Spurs' next head coach: https://t.co/DM6CVKk1iO
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) May 2, 2025

Popovich led the Spurs to six NBA Finals berths and five championships, and won the 2021 Olympic gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics.

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He also helped San Antonio notch 18 consecutive 50-win seasons, and was honored as a three-time Coach of the Year.

🏀 Winningest coach in NBA history
🏀 Five NBA Titles
🏀 18 straight 50-win seasons
🏀 3x NBA Coach of the Year
🏀 170 playoff wins

Gregg Popovich is a legend 👏 pic.twitter.com/5nFq6GRI5y
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) May 2, 2025

Popovich helped steward the careers of many current NBA head coaches. Surprisingly, that group also includes Indiana Pacers coach head coach Rick Carlisle — even though Carlisle never officially served under Popovich.

Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star details how Popovich impacted Carlisle's career.

How NBA wins leader Gregg Popovich helped Rick Carlisle prepare to be a head coach https://t.co/13oUPoIkOe
— IndyStar (@indystar) May 3, 2025

Carlisle had been an 11-year assistant coach, including three seasons as an assistant under Larry Bird on the Indiana Pacers. When he was passed over to work as Bird's replacement on Indiana in 2000-01 (Isiah Thomas replaced him instead), Carlisle was a man without a job.

Popovich brought Carlisle to visit the Spurs that season, anticipating (accurately) that Carlisle would eventually get the head coaching call. Carlisle was subsequently brought on as the Detroit Pistons' head coach in 2001-02. He was named Coach of the Year for his efforts with Detroit that season.

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"That fall he invited me to come down to their camp to watch and sit in on some meetings and actually travel with them for a couple of games, which was really meaningful for me and really gave me a lot of confidence heading into a year where I was trying to become a first-year head coach," Carlisle said.

Carlisle boasts a career 993-860 regular season record and a 75-80 playoff record as a head coach, across his stints with Detroit, Indiana and the Dallas Mavericks. Carlisle won the 2011 title with Dallas.

"It was just a great opportunity to see how he operated his team. His approach to relationships, his approach to delegation of staff, etc. etc.," Carlisle said. "I learned a lot. He was a guy who empowered his players and he empowered his staff too. It's one of the reasons why so many of his former assistants have gone on and become head coaches and been very successful."

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