Spurs' Gregg Popovich passes Don Nelson as NBA's all-time winningest coach

The idea that a coach could take over an NBA team, coach it for 26 seasons, win five titles, have just four losing seasons, go the playoffs 22 consecutive seasons and become the league’s all-time winningest coach with that single franchise in a small market seems quaint in an era where the average coach lasts about four seasons with one team.

Unless that coach is Gregg Popovich, who had the audacity to install himself as head coach of the San Antonio Spurs in 1996. It was the beginning of historic career that will one day put him in the Basketball Hall of Fame.

On Friday, Popovich passed Don Nelson as the league’s all-time winningest coach, collecting his 1,336th victory in a 104-102 win over the Utah Jazz.

Wrapped up in that crowning achievement are remarkable feats that will be difficult to duplicate: the longevity with one team coupled with the success in that market.

Of the top 10 all-time winningest coaches, only Popovich has spent his entire NBA head coaching career with one team. Jerry Sloan spent 23 of his 26 seasons with the Utah Jazz, making Popovich the longest tenured coach with one team in NBA history.

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The longevity is astounding, similar to Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski’s 42-year run at Duke. Those days are mostly over.

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"It's just a testament to a whole lot of people," Popovich said after the record-breaking win. "Something like this does not belong to one individual. Basketball's a team sport. You preach to your players that they have to do it together and that's certainly been the case in my life with all the wonderful players and coaches, the staff that I've been blessed with, the support of this wonderful city. The fans support us no matter what.

"All of us share in this record. It's not mine. It's ours, here in the city."

Nearly NBA 300 coaching changes have taken place since Popovich, 73, took over in San Antonio. It’s just about impossible to envision that happening today, though perhaps Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra has a chance. He has spent 14 seasons as head coach, and with the organizational structure and backbone and his willingness to do that job for that long, Spoelstra, the second-longest tenured coach in the NBA, could still be coaching the Heat in 2034.

Of the 13 coaches with at least 900 victories, just five (Popovich, Phil Jackson, Red Auerbach, Pat Riley and Jerry Sloan) have a winning percentage higher than .600. All but Sloan have multiple titles, including Popovich’s five in 1999, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2014.

A coach doesn’t stay in one place that long without success, and success doesn’t come without talented players. Popovich had them: David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Many Ginobili.

Popovich was fortunate in many ways, which he has acknowledged. The Spurs won the lottery in 1997, allowing them to select Duncan. They were already a good team, winning 59 games in 1995-96. But an injury to Robinson the following season helped put the Spurs in the lottery.

Drafting Parker late in the first round in 2001 and Ginobili late in the second round in 1999 were the results of good luck and quality front office work.

"Whatever success anyone has is due to a lot of factors. Some of it is not even your doing," Popovich said during the 2014 NBA Finals. "Sometimes things just happen. So success is a pretty complicated thing."

Some fortune is by design. It’s not all luck. The Spurs front office, of which Popovich was an active participant as either GM or team president, assembled a certain type of player as often as possible: selfless, team-first performers, and it helped that his stars were those players who had no pressing desire to leave San Antonio and play elsewhere.

"They've gotten over themselves is what we always talk about," Popovich said when he coached Duncan, Parker and Ginobili. "It's absolutely not about any one of them, and they know that. ... If you have three people on your team that lead the way in that manner, it's to be enjoyed on a daily basis. So that's probably the first thing I've enjoyed about them. It makes my job so much easier."

The team-first philosophy manifested itself in teams who committed to defense and shared the basketball. Popovich’s theory of an extra pass turning a good shot into a great shot is a staple of modern NBA offenses.

With so many victories, winning seasons, titles and coach of the year awards, it’s difficult to pinpoint Popovich’s best season among his six 60-win seasons and 19 seasons with at least 50 wins.

But 2013-14 stands out. Coming off a Finals loss to Miami in 2013 in which the Spurs had a 3-2 series lead and a lead late in Game 6, they returned a dominant force the following season. San Antonio had the league’s best regular-season record and clobbered the Heat in five games in the Finals rematch.

Though he cares little for such a thing as legacy, his impact on the NBA extends to his multi-branched coaching tree. In some capacity — either a player, coach or Spurs staffer — the league is filled with coaches who worked with Popovich, including current coaches in Milwaukee’s Mike Budenholzer, Memphis’ Taylor Jenkins, Golden State’s Steve Kerr, Phoenix’s Monty Williams, Utah’s Quin Snyder, Charlotte’s James Borrego.

He was and is demanding, and the Spurs aren’t for every player. Popovich is going through the roughest stretch of his career in terms of wins and losses. This will be his third consecutive losing season. But he's still coaching. The Spurs remain competitive and Dejounte Murray became a first-time All-Star this season. He's working with young players who will benefit from his coaching long after he retires.

No one can argue with the results from one of the greatest coaches in NBA history.

Follow Jeff Zillgitt on Twitter @JeffZillgitt.