COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Tribune News Service) — A collage strategically hangs inside the Air Force basketball offices, highlighting the rise of Gregg Popovich from cadet to Falcons assistant to the winningest coach in NBA history.

Every visiting recruit exits the conference room and walks straight toward that display, a not-so-subtle way to proclaim that the program played a role in one of the great careers the game has seen.

That coaching career came to an end on Friday, with Popovich announcing he will step away from the bench he has helmed since 1996 and instead serve as president of basketball operations. Assistant Mitch Johnson will replace him.

Popovich had been the longest-serving head coach in major North America sports, and that had been the case for more than a dozen years.

“While my love and passion for the game remain, I’ve decided it’s time to step away as head coach,” said Popovich, a five-time NBA champion as a coach whose 1,422 regular-season wins are unmatched in league history. “I’m forever grateful to the wonderful players, coaches, staff and fans who allowed me to serve them as the (San Antonio) Spurs head coach and am excited for the opportunity to continue to support the organization, community and city that are so meaningful to me.”

Around here, unless some primarily recall his Olympic City USA connection as the gold medal winning coach in the 2020 Summer Games, Popovich will always be linked to the Falcons. And for the close ties he kept with the program after leaving.

When Air Force men’s basketball coach Joe Scott wanted to emulate a team-building trip he had taken as a player at Princeton, he teamed with Popovich to raise funds. With the coach lending his name and offering to match donations, the Falcons found the money to tour Sweden and Norway for six games in the summer of 2003. The trip was instrumental in players like Antoine Hood, Nick Welch, Tim Keller and A.J. Kuhl cementing the bonds that led them to the program’s only conference title in the season that followed.

“A lot of that was because of Pop stepping up like he did,” Scott said.

Popovich continued to be a presence, sometimes literally. Always a fan of hiking the trails on the academy grounds near the prep school during downtime in August, Popovich would occasionally take a stroll and then surprise former coach Dave Pilipovich by stopping by his office unannounced on a Friday evening or Saturday morning.

Hand-written notes wishing luck for an upcoming season or offering congratulations on big wins would frequently land on the desks of Air Force coaches.

Popovich also brought the Spurs to Air Force during training camp in 2013. He frequently wears Air Force hats and T-shirts and he hired Pilipovich as a summer league assistant with the Spurs and later as a coach for the franchise’s G League team in Austin, Texas following his time with the Falcons.

“He’s just a great, great person,” Pilipovich said. “Obviously we know how tremendous a basketball coach he is to win the championships in the NBA, the gold medal and all those things. But he’s just a Hall of Fame person.”

Popovich was aided in his Spurs success by Hall of Fame players like David Robinson and Tim Duncan. But he has long credited his education and experience as a cadet with placing him in that position.

“Let me tell you, there was no bigger wise guy than me upon entering the academy, and to this day I think back to all the lessons that I learned there that have informed me and helped organize my life in this profession,” Popovich said during his induction into the Air Force Athletics Hall of Fame in 2019, a speech that began with him introducing himself as Cadet Popovich 703621K. “I couldn’t be more proud of having graduated from the academy.”

Perhaps it is no coincidence that the coaches with the most wins in the NBA (Popovich) and NCAA men’s basketball (Mike Krzyzewski, an Army graduate) both sprang from service academies.

“Athletics is one of the three pillars for a reason,” said Scott, referencing the academy’s emphasis on academics, military and athletics. “This experience and how it molds you, develops you, tests you … this is probably one of the greatest training grounds.”

Popovich married a Colorado Springs local, Erin (Conboy) Popovich, the daughter of longtime Air Force athletic trainer Jim Conboy. They met when he was back at the academy in his first coaching assignment under Hank Egan, a role Popovich held with the Falcons from 1973-79.

Erin Popovich died in 2018 after a lengthy respiratory illness.

Health has been an issue for Popovich, 76, who coached only the first five games in 2024-25 before missing the remainder of the season after suffering a stroke in November. He was again hospitalized April 15 after a medical incident at a San Antonio restaurant.

“Selfishly I was hoping he would come back and coach again and go out on the bench, but obviously this is the route that he’s taking and I just wish him great health and I know he’ll be a key figure for the Spurs as they move forward,” said Pilipovich, who is now an assistant at Colorado State.

Popovich was a three-time NBA Coach of the Year and for 22 consecutive seasons, beginning in 1997-98, his Spurs teams finished with winning records.

This from a 6-foot-3 undersized forward from Indiana who willed himself into a ball-handling guard at the only program that would take him. And even Air Force cut him from the varsity as a sophomore. He took that as motivation, made the team the following year, served as team captain as a senior and still ranks third in program history with a 54.1 shooting percentage.

“Gregg takes things to excess sometimes,” Egan once told The Gazette in an exaggerated underselling of the worth ethic Popovich utilized to turn himself in a contributor who averaged 14.3 points per game as a senior in 1969-70.

Popovich graduated from Air Force with a degree in Soviet studies and served five years on active duty. He later added a master’s in physical education and sports sciences from the University of Denver and embarked on a coaching career that included 15 years at the college level (eight as the head coach at Pomona-Pitzer), six years an as NBA assistant and then the unprecedented run in San Antonio that reached its conclusion on Friday.

“I think his legacy speaks for itself,” said Scott, who will continue to draw the connection from his program to Popovich. “You say the name and you know what you’re getting. You’re getting success, down to earth, to the point. … Honesty and integrity at the highest level.”

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