Keldon Johnson on Gregg Popovich: ‘He’s one of the best human beings I’ve ever been around’

Gregg Popovich hasn’t been coaching the San Antonio Spurs for a while now. He suffered a stroke in November of last year and has since revealed that he will not return to the sidelines this season.

Spurs forward Keldon Johnson is the team’s longest-tenured player and is in his sixth season in San Antonio after the franchise drafted him with the No. 29 overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft. He recently gave Popovich his flowers and credited him for being quite the influential figure in his life.

“He’s really shaped who I am as a young man,” Johnson said. “A lot of people think Pop is so stern. No, no, no. He’s one of the best human beings I’ve ever been around. He treats everybody really well and puts everyone before himself.”

Johnson has taken on a number of different roles throughout his Spurs tenure. This season, he’s been a reliable spark plug off the bench. Across 64 games and zero starts this season, he’s averaging 12.6 points per game while shooting 48.6 percent from the field.

But at one point earlier on in his stint with the Spurs — before the team selected big man Victor Wembanyama with the top pick in the 2023 NBA Draft — there was a real argument to be made that he was San Antonio’s best player. Back in the 2022-23 campaign, he averaged a team-high 22.0 points per contest and started every one of the 63 games he appeared in.

Even though Popovich has been down for the count for the lion’s share of the 2024-25 season, Johnson has been lucky to play under one of the more accomplished coaches in NBA history for much of his time in the NBA.

The Spurs have won five NBA championships with Popovich at the helm, with the team’s most recent title coming in the year 2014. San Antonio made quick work of forward LeBron James and the Miami Heat in that year’s championship series, and star Kawhi Leonard earned Finals MVP honors.

Popovich is aiming to return to coaching in the future, and hopefully that wish will turn into a reality next season.

The Spurs have had plenty of promising stretches of play this season and could potentially be a real threat to qualify for the 2026 NBA Playoffs with Popovich leading the team once again. San Antonio already has six more wins than it did all of last season.