Top Moments Between Utah Jazz And Gregg Popovich, San Antonio Spurs
29 years as the San Antonio Spurs head coach. Greg Papovich announced this week that he’s officially retiring from coaching. Even though he steps away from the bench, Pop will remain with the franchise as the team’s president. Pop’s 29 seasons with the Spurs is the most with the same franchise in NBA history. Jerry Sloan is second on that list with 23 seasons in Utah. Now, Pop went to the playoffs in 22 of his 29 seasons, but only three times did he ever face the Utah Jazz in the postseason. The first time came in the 1998 playoffs. The Jazz second run to the NBA finals. The two teams met up in the second round. Tim Duncan averaged 21 points per game in the series. David Robinson added 18.8 points and 12.6 rebounds. But the mailman powered the Jazz to the series win in five games. The two teams would not meet again in the postseason until 2007, the Western Conference Finals. Darren Williams averaged 25.8 eight points and Carlos Boozer poured in 21 per game in the series. But the script was flipped this time and the Spurs beat the Jazz in five games. Pop taking the Spurs to their fourth NBA finals and fourth NBA title when they would sweep LeBron and the Cavs. The only other time the two teams met in the postseason came in the 2012 first round. The only time Ty Corbin took the Jazz to the playoffs was this series. Al Jefferson was the Jazz leading scorer in the series, but the Spurs were dominant, led by Tony Parker, Tim Duncan, and Steven Jackson. The Spurs would sweep the Jazz in four games with an average margin of victory of 16 points. 5 years later, Papovic would tie himself to Jazz history once again. This time midway through the 201617 season with the Spurs, a 10286 win over the 76ers. Papovic would tie Jerry Sloan for the most wins by a head coach with a single franchise in NBA history. After the game, Pop explained what it meant to him to be in Sloan’s company in only a way that Pop could do it. Right. You matched Jerry Sloan for most wins with one franchise. I know records don’t mean a lot to you, but considering it’s Jerry Sloan, does that record have a little more meaning? He’s in a different league than me. Brett Brown was telling us before the game back in the day you guys modeled a lot of what you did on on Jerry and Utah and that stuff. Was that a It was then and still is a class organization and we tried to, you know, do it similarly to them as far as how we conducted the program and what we expected and how to do it and how to keep it to yourself and that sort of thing. But you get all those wins. It’s just a a longevity thing more than anything. So, I’m thankful for having the job for a while. Then on March 11th, 2022, Greg Papovich would make NBA history against the Utah Jazz. The Jazz would blow a 15-point fourth quarter lead against the Spurs. That was a familiar story that season. Dejante Murray scored a game high 27 points and the Spurs won by two, 104 102. the 1,336th win of Papovic’s career, breaking the all-time record. Papovic now retiring with,412 all-time wins. Doc Rivers is the next closest active head coach, but he still is 249 wins behind Pop.
The impact of Gregg Popovich, the Hall of Fame head coach of the San Antonio Spurs, has been felt throughout the NBA over the last three decades, including with the Utah Jazz.
Popovich announced he was stepping away from coaching permanently after 29 years overseeing San Antonio.
Beyond key battles between the Jazz and Spurs in the playoffs, Popovich’s extensive coaching tree has roots that have extended to Salt Lake City.
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