After struggling a stroke within the fall, Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich is “attacking his rehab with the identical resilience” that he has exhibited for many years on the staff’s bench, staff CEO R.C. Buford advised reporters in Paris on Wednesday, based on The Athletic’s Joe Vardon.
Whereas Buford isn’t ruling out the chance that Popovich will resume his teaching duties for the Spurs later this season, he mentioned it’s unattainable to say for certain — or to challenge a restoration timeline for the longtime head coach, who will flip 76 subsequent Tuesday.
“His enchancment continues to get higher, [but] I don’t know that now we have any option to choose the clock,” Buford mentioned. “Predicting what’s to return is only a perform of the place Pop’s rehab goes.”
Popovich initially stepped away from the Spurs in early November on account of what was described on the time as a well being difficulty. The membership later put out an announcement saying that Popovich had suffered a light stroke, and he subsequently issued an announcement of his personal in December that hinted he deliberate to return to the sidelines for the Spurs if and when his well being allowed.
Within the meantime, appearing head coach Mitch Johnson continues to guide the membership and has San Antonio inside putting distance of a play-in spot at 19-22. In keeping with Vardon, Johnson described his communication with Popovich as “constant.”
“He’s watching video games, nonetheless as opinionated as he’s ever been, and aggressive, and what you’d assume — giving reward and cussing me out, all on the identical time,” Johnson mentioned, per Tim Reynolds of The Related Press. “Pop’s well being has been the precedence for the reason that begin of this and till dot-dot-dot. That’s sort of how we, and I, take the strategy. We would like the perfect for Pop and I need the perfect for this staff and nonetheless I will help is the place I’ll put my vitality.”
Chris Paul additionally mentioned he stays involved with Popovich, telling the media in Paris that the Spurs coach is in contact with gamers through cellphone.
“I’m not even certain if that is public, however he calls,” Paul mentioned. “He calls after video games and I speak to him, and he tells me what he sees, and I recognize that greater than something as a result of he doesn’t have to try this. And he does.”
As Vardon writes in a separate story for The Athletic, if Popovich had been in France on the present street journey, he seemingly would have taken the Spurs out to a complicated Paris restaurant for the form of “wine-soaked” staff dinner he’s identified for. As an alternative, it was second-year star Victor Wembanyama who took the lead on that staff dinner on Monday after the membership arrived in his native nation, per Vardon.
“We talked about it — Pop had a schedule right here, and he would have accomplished one thing like that too,” Wembanyama mentioned. “Doing that on the primary day was essential for me to welcome [teammates] and to indicate them, as a result of I do know if I went to any of those guys’ nation or metropolis, I might have beloved to seek out out about about the place they arrive from to study to know them higher as a result of they’re they’re all good human beings. So actually, it’s an actual likelihood to share these moments collectively.”
