regg Popovich becomes winningest coach in NBA history, surpasses Don Nelson

San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich surpassed Hall of Fame coach Don Nelson for the most regular-season victories by a coach in NBA history with San Antonio's 104-102 win over the Utah Jazz on Friday. He now has 1,336 regular-season wins, the most all-time.

“It’s a testament to a whole lot of people,” Popovich said after the game. “Something like this doesn’t belong to one individual. All of us share in this record."

Popovich, 73, has spent his entire 26-year head coaching career with the Spurs and led them to five NBA championship titles. He entered this season just 25 wins shy of Nelson's record.

Popovich is the longest-tenured active NBA coach, starting with the Spurs in 1996. Not only does have the most wins in NBA history (regular season and playoffs combined), but he also has a winning record in his first 22 seasons as a coach. He’s a three-time NBA Coach of the Year and coached in the NBA All-Star Game four times.

Outside of the NBA, Popovich coached the U.S. men’s national team to a gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

How Popovich will be remembered

Sam Amick, senior NBA writer: Securing the wins record is certainly an incredible feat, but 'Pop' will be remembered for two things that still rank significantly higher on his list of personal achievements: Winning titles (five in all) and teaching in the kind of way that impacted locker room cultures all over the league for decades. His often-edgy style with the media belied the truth about the caring way he moved behind the scenes, where he inspired the kind of buy-in from his players that led to so many great teams.

Will this record ever be broken?

Amick: Considering Popovich is still going strong at 73 years old, it's safe to assume that the two current coaches closest to him on the list of all-time wins - 60-year-old Doc Rivers (Philadelphia) and 62-year-old Rick Carlisle (Indiana) - could potentially have a shot at unseating him. It all depends on how long Popovich plans on adding to his win total, of course. Rivers is 304 wins away from Popovich at the moment, while Carlisle is 478 behind.

How much Popovich has left

Amick: Popovich has unofficially been on the year-by-year plan for, well, years now. The death of his wife, Erin, in April of 2018 led to natural questions about whether he might retire, but he chose to keep going. We thought he might call it quits when the Spurs missed the playoffs for the first time in 23 years back in 2019, but that didn't compel him to walk away either. The man clearly loves what he does, even all these years later, and continues to do it at such a high level that we still can't see the end of his NBA road just yet.