Gregg Popovich Comments on Tying Jerry Sloan's Record for Most Wins with 1 Team
San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich tied Jerry Sloan's record for the most wins with a single team following Thursday evening's 102-86 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers, and he appeared humbled by that milestone during a postgame meeting with reporters.
"When you get all those wins, it's just a longevity thing more than anything," Popovich said, per ESPN.com's Michael C. Wright. "So I'm thankful for having the job for a while."
By virtue of Thursday's triumph, Popovich now owns 1,127 wins over the course of his 21-year head-coaching career. And even though it took Sloan 23 seasons to reach that mark, per Wright, Popovich praised Sloan and said the legendary Utah Jazz coach "is in a different league than me."
"[Utah] was then, and still is, a class organization, and we tried to do it similarly to them as far as how we conducted the program, what we expected, how to do it, how to keep it to yourself, and that sort of thing," Popovich added, per Wright.
San Antonio's head honcho will aim for win No. 1,128 on Saturday when the Spurs host the Denver Nuggets at AT&T Center.
Once he passes Sloan, Popovich will be able to continue his ascent up the NBA's all-time wins leaderboard. At present, Popovich is just 28 wins behind Phil Jackson for sixth on that esteemed list.
| 1 | Don Nelson | 1,335 | .557 |
| 2 | Lenny Wilkens | 1,332 | .536 |
| 3 | Jerry Sloan | 1,221 | .603 |
| 4 | Pat Riley | 1,210 | .636 |
| 5 | George Karl | 1,175 | .588 |
| 6 | Phil Jackson | 1,155 | .704 |
| 7 | Gregg Popovich | 1,127 | .694 |
And while there are only 33 games remaining in the regular season, the Spurs (38-11) could allow their coach to flirt with that mark if they continue to shred opponents the way they have since the start of 2017.
Dating back to Jan. 1, the Spurs rank second behind only the Golden State Warriors in net rating with a scoring margin of plus-10.1 points per 100 possessions. The Spurs also boast the NBA's top defensive rating (101.5) during that span.
So while it would take a herculean effort from the Spurs to go 28-5 over the remainder of the season, recent trends suggest it's not out of the realm of possibility so long as they keep churning out some of the league's top efficiency rates.
Stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com.
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