Adversity has been a constant for Mitch Johnson in his Spurs’ tenure. He’s handling things with ease

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Victor Wembanyama missed 12 of San Antonio’s first 25 games this season. Dylan Harper has missed 10 already for the Spurs, while Stephon Castle has been out for nine and De’Aaron Fox couldn’t play in eight.

That’s a lot of injuries.

And the Spurs are 18-7.

Dealing with adversity has been an every-single-day chore for Mitch Johnson since he inherited his job as coach of the Spurs, a move that came unexpectedly when NBA all-time wins leader and franchise patriarch Gregg Popovich had a stroke in November 2024. He wasn’t planning to become a head coach on that Saturday afternoon when Popovich was stricken, and the job he did was more than admirable to finish out the season.

Now? The Spurs look like they could be contenders for the first time in about a decade. Johnson — despite all the injury issues — has seemed unflappable, guiding San Antonio to a spot in the NBA Cup championship game against New York and getting the team off to a start that suggests its first playoff appearance since 2019 may be awaiting this spring.

“I trust in Mitch 100%,” Spurs guard Devin Vassell said. “Mitch was my player development coach when I first got here, so I think me and him have an even better connection than the outside sees. But we all trust him. He’s the brains of all of this. He helps us with everything … and we’re just going to keep relying on him. He’s our head coach and we trust in him.”

There’s a cliche in sports, and it’s a cliche for a reason: Never follow a legend.

Johnson didn’t have much of a choice.

He won his first game on the night when Popovich had the stroke, continued holding the fort even after Wembanyama was shut down at the All-Star break when deep vein thrombosis was found in one of his shoulders. Johnson finished 32-45 last season, doomed at the end by a 3-9 stretch over the final 12 games.

This year, San Antonio is off to its best start since 2016-17. That was a team that went to the Western Conference finals led by Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge, still had Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili contributing, and Popovich added 61 coaching wins to his collection.

“I’m not Pop,” Johnson said, “so I can’t lead how he did.”

Popovich’s ways were the right ways; the record total of 1,390 wins more than proves that much. But it doesn’t mean Popovich’s ways are the only ways; case in point, the way the Spurs closed out their Cup semifinal win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday night. Popovich staunchly opposed fouling in the final moments with three-point leads, and Johnson had the Spurs do it on three separate occasions down the stretch of their 111-109 win.

The Spurs’ Way is still The Spurs’ Way. Johnson is just making mild little tweaks here and there.

“I think our franchise is used to and committed to winning, and that’s not a knock to any other franchises, but some people that have been with our franchise for a very long time have set a foundation and embedded principles that has allowed that to happen over time,” Johnson said. “I think when we have not been winning as recently, a lot of those principles and ways we operate have not changed or wavered. We just needed to continue to grow with this group.”

He just needed some time to grow as well. It’s not easy to follow Popovich, not easy to coach a global superstar like Wembanyama, not easy to try and find the best recipe for having veterans and young guys mesh together.

Somehow, Johnson has made it all seem like no big deal. The NBA Cup final was an obvious step in the right direction, and the Spurs seem to have a ton of confidence after getting off to this kind of flying start.

“He’s always been very hardworking, high character, good person, very steady emotionally,” said Thunder coach Mark Daigneault, who has known Johnson since they were coming up together as coaches in the G League. “He doesn’t get up and down. And he’s really worked his way through that organization to get to this point. He’s done a great job, even last season in a tough circumstance, and then this season with a full training camp. So, I’ve got a lot of respect for Mitch and a lot of respect for the work he’s doing right now.”

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