Gregg Popovich dreads thought of Tim Duncan’s retirement

Gregg Popovich doesn’t like the idea of coaching the San Antonio Spurs without Tim Duncan and he doesn’t want to think about it now.

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San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich and power forward Tim Duncan are linked together like few athletes and coaches in the history of professional sports.

They’re entering their 18th season together and have won five championships, including last season.

But Popovich knows that even as he has signed a multiyear extension to remain as coach of the Spurs, his franchise star for the better part of two decades is on a very finite timeline.

"“When he’s not at practice, I’m going to be a little depressed, I think,” Popovich told The Washington Post. “It makes me sad. I’m going to miss it an awful lot. … I’ll think about it when it happens and it’ll be tough, but until then I’m not going to start being unhappy now.”"

When one thinks about player-coach synergy, Duncan and Popovich are right there with Bill Russell and Red Auerbach in the history of the NBA (Latrell Sprewell and P.J. Carlesimo had a chance to make that list, but choked it away).

After dismantling the Miami Heat in five games in the NBA Finals, Duncan and Popovich met to discuss the future before deciding to come back for 2014-15.

Duncan exercised his $10.3 million option for his 18th season while Popovich agreed to what is believed to be a five-year contract extension.

That changed the narrative a bit—the belief had long been held that Timmay and Pop would exit the stage together, a scenario made much less likely now.

"“It seems pretty logical and smart to do that. I know where my bread is buttered,” Popovich said. “But I basically made the same commitments to Manu [Ginobili] and to Tony [Parker] that when they signed contracts, they wanted to know if I’m going to be here and I tell them I am, so it’s pretty tough to go ahead and leave.”"

Ginobili is signed through 2015-16 and Parker’s deal expires in 2018.

Gregg Popovich doesn’t like the idea of coaching the San Antonio Spurs without Tim Duncan and he doesn’t want to think about it now.

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