Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports More behind the scenes accounts from Pop’s stroke and how he has been doing ever since. There have been many moments that have come to define the 2024-25 season for the Spurs. What started as a promising run for the postseason in the 2024 porti on turned into another trip to no-man’s land in 2025 as multiple health issues have taken a toll, leaving the Spurs in the awkward spot of being too good to fall to the bottom of the standings but likely not good enough to make a run for the play-in, despite being close and the struggles of several other teams in the middle of the Western Conference standings. While most will (rightfully) remember Victor Wembanyama’s season-ending diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis as being the moment that derailed the season, there was another instance that has come define this season all they back on November 2. Anyone who has kept track is likely aware that this is the night Gregg Popovich suffered a stroke a few hours before a game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, and he has not been seen by the public since. Four-and-a-half months later, ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne and Michael C. Wright did a deep dive into what went down that night and what has been going on behind the scenes ever since as the oldest, most successful coach in the NBA fights to return to his dream job. Everything seemed fine that evening. Gregg Popovich was at the Frost Bank Center for a workout, and Keldon Johnson had arrived early to beat the traffic and for some treatment when everything suddenly changed. But shortly after stepping away from his workout next to the team’s locker room, deep inside the warren of white, silver and black hallways at the arena, Popovich stopped in his tracks. Team staffers who were around while he was lifting weights knew something was off and grabbed him, according to sources with knowledge of the situation. They immediately sat Popovich down. Nearby, Johnson heard the commotion as the coach began receiving medical attention. “I couldn’t see him,” Johnson told ESPN. “But to see how everybody was talking about it was scary.” While the Spurs told reporters that Pop was under the weather so Mitch Johnson would be coaching the game, it ended up being much worse: a stroke, which is caused by a blood clot denying blood supply to the brain. (And while they would later define it as “minor” in a press release, a stroke is still a stroke, and even “minor” ones require an extensive and grueling recovery period.) Behind the scenes, though, word had begun to spread among the team that what had happened to Popovich — the rock upon which one of the NBA’s most successful franchises has been built — was serious and perhaps life-threatening. It would take time for doctors to determine the extent of the damage Popovich suffered after what was deemed a mild stroke. Players weren’t able to talk to him for weeks. It was several months before he was strong enough to walk and then stand in front of the team and speak directly to them. While sources have said that Pop is improving at an advanced pace — reportedly about 4 months ahead of schedule compared to others who have suffered similar strokes — there is still no telling when or if he will return the sideline (certainly not this season), but we know he wants to. He was well enough to meet with team by the end of January, but with the Spurs’ crazy schedule and the Rodeo Road Trip, it was tough to find the time. They finally found a chance on February 27, between the Spurs’ penultimate game of the RRT in Houston and final game in Memphis. Pop came by the practice facility to meet with his team for the first time in nearly four months, and this was also newest Spur De’Aaron Fox’s first chance to see Pop since joining the franchise at the trade deadline a few weeks prior. On the practice court at The Rock, Popovich stood in front of his team to deliver a message: He wasn’t coming back this season, he told them. But he had been watching them closely and was still in position to hold them accountable for their play. “Everybody shut the f--- up when he walked in,” (Mitch) Johnson said. “That’s just how it’s always been with Pop. Obviously, he’s still recovering. But he was still cussing. ‘Y’all need to play defense. Y’all need to rebound.’ Knowing that, s---, he really is watching the games because he’s calling out specific situations, was huge. “It was what we needed. I feel like he brought that life, that spark. That Pop that we all knew and loved. He came into that meeting and that’s who he was. It was like he didn’t skip a beat.” He spoke a little more slowly than before, more measured. Wearing an all-black sweatsuit, Popovich talked about the future, one he hopes includes a spot at the head of the bench. But also he cautioned, reiterating a standard that has come to define his three decades at the helm. “If I can’t be 100% myself, I’m doing everybody a disservice.” There has been talk for nearly a decade about who will be Pop’s replacement, since he had always teased that he would retire with Tim Duncan. That ended up not being the case as he couldn’t step away from the team he loved, and he even found a new love for coaching a rebuilding team instead of a championship contender since, as he once said, the young players were a blank slate. The arrival of Wemby just added more fuel to his ever-burning coaching fire. Now, for the first time in his career, things are more uncertain. As he told his players, he won’t come back if he’s not 100%. Whether he gets there or not remains to be seen, and if he doesn’t, who among a long list of potential successors, including Johnson, is a topic for another day. But for now, one thing is for certain, it’s entirely Pop’s choice. “It’s Pop’s decision,” one person close to the situation told ESPN. “He’s earned that.” There is much more to Shelburne and Wright’s article, so be sure to go read it in its entirety when you have 20 minutes. It’s an amazing insight not just into Pop, but the organization as a whole and interim head coach Mitch Johnson. It also certainly puts life into perspective. ...read more read less