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 workforce’s bench, workforce CEO R.C. Buford instructed reporters in Paris on Wednesday, in keeping with 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 positive — or to mission 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 approach to decide the clock,” Buford mentioned. “Predicting what’s to come back is only a operate of the place Pop’s rehab goes.”
Popovich initially stepped away from the Spurs in early November because of what was described on the time as a well being situation. The membership later put out a statement saying that Popovich had suffered a gentle stroke, and he subsequently issued a statement of his own in December that hinted he deliberate to return to the sidelines for the Spurs if and when his well being allowed.
Within the meantime, performing head coach Mitch Johnson continues to guide the membership and has San Antonio inside hanging 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’ll assume — giving reward and cussing me out, all on the identical time,” Johnson mentioned, per Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press. “Pop’s well being has been the precedence for the reason that begin of this and till dot-dot-dot. That’s form of how we, and I, take the method. We wish one of the best for Pop and I need one of the best for this workforce and nevertheless I may help is the place I’ll put my power.”
Chris Paul additionally mentioned he stays involved with Popovich, telling the media in Paris that the Spurs coach is in contact with gamers through telephone.
“I’m not even positive 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 respect that greater than something as a result of he doesn’t have to do this. And he does.”
As Vardon writes in a separate story for The Athletic, if Popovich have been in France on the present street journey, he possible would have taken the Spurs out to a complicated Paris restaurant for the form of “wine-soaked” team dinner he’s known for. As a substitute, it was second-year star Victor Wembanyama who took the lead on that workforce 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 finished one thing like that too,” Wembanyama mentioned. “Doing that on the primary day was essential for me to welcome [teammates] and to point out them, as a result of I do know if I went to any of those guys’ nation or metropolis, I’d 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.”
