'Maestro' | How Mitch Johnson Became the Perfect Coach for the Spurs

SAN ANTONIO - Before taking on the Clippers, Spurs Head Coach Mitch Johnson took a moment to reflect on his journey.

At just 39 years old, the rookie head coach is young enough to have a college teammate still playing in the league. Brook Lopez calls his old point guard 'Maestro', and KENS 5's Nate Ryan asked Johnson about the significance of the moniker.

"Actually, my dad originally gave it to me in middle school," Johnson said. "I was better then than I was in college, but it's from my dad. I was born and raised in Seattle, so it's... my childhood friends actually still (call me that), it's one of those types of things. But my college teammates called me that. Brook scored a lot of points when I passed to him, so I'm very grateful for him."

My good pal @nateryansports asked Spurs coach Mitch Johnson about his old nickname from his point guard days: ‘Maestro’

A very sweet moment where he smiled and reminisced about his father, his college teammate Brook Lopez, and his unexpected journey to here. pic.twitter.com/kuId0hznB5
— Tom Petrini (@RealTomPetrini) March 7, 2026

John Johnson played 12 seasons in the NBA, a two-time All-Star who won the title with the Seattle Supersonics in 1979. A 6-foot-7 playmaker, many consider him to be one of the first point forwards in the history of the game. He was the seventh-overall pick in the 1970 NBA draft, and though he never played for them he was actually also selected in the ABA draft that same year by the Dallas Chaparrals, who eventually moved to San Antonio and became the Spurs.

When Mitch Johnson got recruited to play at Stanford, John Johnson moved to San Jose. Mitch played four years with the Cardinal, starting 107 games and averaging 5.3 points and 4.1 assists per game. He then spent a few years in the G League and Europe before eventually becoming a coach.

John Johnson passed away in 2016 at the age of 68. Later that year, his son Mitch joined the franchise that once drafted his father as an assistant coach with the Austin Spurs in the G League. A decade later he's conducting the show for the big team in San Antonio after taking over for Hall of Famer Gregg Popovich. It's a path he never saw for himself when he was playing.

"I did not, I probably also didn't realize at the time the way I play, in terms of point guard and trying to lead and trying to connect, probably looking back now makes sense," Johnson said. "I also think there's a natural, oxymoronic relationship at times between player and coach, where you just as a player never want to be the coach, you want to play. And when you're the coach trying to get a group of people to do one singular thing, there's always a little bit of a conflict of interest with every individual."

"When you have good guys, that's why it makes it that much more valuable and important," he said. "But yeah, there are some there are some tea leaves, I guess looking back on now, that makes sense, and I draw upon those experiences quite a bit, but I definitely did not foresee this."

Nobody could have foreseen how Johnson came to the helm in San Antonio after Popoovich suffered a stroke in the middle of last season. He was a relatively-unknown branch of Pop's legendary coaching tree, but he's already bearing fruit. Not even the biggest optimists in San Antonio thought that this team would not only break their playoff drought, but shoot to the top of the standings.

"He's been great. I text with Mitch a lot," Clippers coach Ty Lue said before the game. "I had a chance to really talk basketball and strategy over the course of doing Olympics, we were in Vegas together. Really sharp mind, great young coach."

As Johnson leads his team to this shocking success, he's showing us exactly who he is. He's a person who values process over results, knowing that results will come when the process is followed. He preaches 'embracing the mundane' and discipline for discipline's sake. He provides a structure and principles for his guys to follow rather than exact instructions.

"(For a) young coach to have control of a young team, got em playing hard, playing defensively, the way they play offensively, who they play through, how they play, it just shows you how good of a coach Mitch is," Lue said.

The previous night, San Antonio emerged from a physical battle against the East-leading Pistons with a wire-to-wire blowout win. It would have been easy to attribute a blowout loss the following night to tired legs and write it off as one of those things that happens over the course of an 82-game season. It looked like that was exactly what was going to happen as LA built a 25-point lead.

"The casual opinion would have shrugged your shoulders if the first half continued into the second half... hard fought game last night, second night of a back-to-back, guys are banged up, Clippers good team, da-da-da-da-da, whatever," Johnson said.

Against all odds and circumstances beyond their control, however, Johnson's team made this the second-biggest comeback for the Spurs in the play-by-play era. He got contributions from everyone as San Antonio clawed back for a win that Victor Wembanyama called one of the best and toughest of his career.

"The competitive response and the character that I thought the guy showed to really try to band together and fight through the mental, the physical and emotional fatigue was commendable," Johnson said.

Wembanyama had scored 38 points in 39 minutes the previous night against Detroit, and after the win over the Clippers said that he nearly passed out from exhaustion. He dropped 27 points, 11 rebounds, and 4 blocks in just 22 minutes of play as Johnson carefully managed his minutes to get the most out of his superstar centerpiece without pushing him too far.

"We had a plan going into this game," Johnson said. "We pushed him to his limits last night and what that was, and as we've been all year, mindful of that, and the plan was executed. And I think we also realized after his first stretch to start the game that was probably the max of a stint that he was looking at tonight. We're looking at short bursts, because we wanted him to be in a stance and play defense and run the floor and screen and offensive rebound, all those things, so we'd rather sacrifice the stint than the effort, but the minutes, that was the plan that was executed."

Johnson pushed all the right buttons in the second half, adjusting to how the Clippers were playing and leaning into the hot hands on his side. Julian Champagnie went off for 17 points in the third quarter. Johnson gave rookie Carter Bryant a tremendous amount of responsibility in the fourth quarter, and it paid off as he made a profound two-way impact and logged a game-high +11 in just 21 minutes.

"I think he's just trusting his instincts and I think his decision making, pattern recognition and wisdom continue to grow," Johnson said. But right now, I'd like him to keep doubling down on the instincts, with the activity and the tenacity and the energy."

Watch the highlights of San Antonio's miraculous comeback, and you'll see a team that kept their foot on the pedal and hear a crowd that reached a fever pitch in one of the most emotional games in the NBA this season. Watch the highlight again, and if you focus on Mitch Johnson you will be floored by how locked in he is on what he's supposed to be doing as a coach, how he just keeps waving his baton despite the chaos unfolding around him.

Every single basket the Clippers made in the first half, he urged his guys to push the ball up the floor immediately. As the Spurs mounted their comeback and made big shot after big shot, he kept any emotional response bottled up and instead called on his guys to press on the ensuing inbound.

When Wemby blocked a shot, and Castle lobbed it from halfcourt, and Bryant slammed it down to make it a one-point game and blow the roof off the place, Johnson no-sold it and told his guys to press up. The next trip down when Devin Vassell drilled a triple for the lead, Johnson allowed himself to clap a bit but only because the Clippers called timeout.

Kawhi Leonard did his patented steal and slam to put LA back in front, and Johnson called time with 4:53 to play. He gave Wembanyama a quick breather, briefly putting in Luke Kornet before throwing a curveball and giving the 6-foot-9 Bryant a few minutes as a small-ball center. Kornet slammed a putback dunk, then Bryant stamped a straightaway triple.

"I definitely think it's a potential use for him," Johnson said. "I do think it's unfair to get too broad in what we're asking him to do right now, I think that's probably more of a byproduct of the Victor minutes, to not also overrunning Luke. So I think it's definitely something we'd like to grow, I love the idea of it, but I also want him to just keep on hitting singles and killing it like he is."

Champagnie said that the crowd was so loud the Spurs had to figure out other ways to communicate because it was too loud to talk. A stoic Johnson calmly and firmly used hand signals to communicate with his players, not allowing himself to get caught up in the moment that 19,000 people were sharing. The reigning Western Conference Coach of the Month was a huge part of San Antonio's historic comeback and the magnificent season they're having, but he'd never tell you that.

Back when he was dropping dimes to Splash Mountain in college, Mitch Johnson couldn't have known that he'd end up here. His late father, however, identified him as a leader before he was a teenager. The more he wins, and the more he speaks, the more obvious it becomes why his dad came to that conclusion all those years ago.

"I'd be careful to use the word pride, because I wouldn't want to have that come across as me taking credit, but I think it's a lot of joy to be part of and participate with the guys in the competitive response and character they showed tonight," Johnson said.

That's why they call him Maestro.