It’s been a tough season for the San Antonio Spurs. Perhaps no one has felt it more than Mitch Johnson. The assistant coach who took over for Hall-of-Famer Gregg Popovich very early on has been in charge during a year that started with promise but has seen since the losses of Victor Wembanyama and De’Aaron Fox for the season. Keldon Johnson is still healthy. He sums up Johnson’s work succinctly.
“I feel like he’s done an amazing job,” the longest-tenured Spur said.
That the results haven’t been amazing doesn’t matter in this context.
“It’s been huge, it’s been huge. Coach has been able to pretty much just calm everything down with everything that’s happened,” Spurs guard Devin Vassell added.
Very much in the Western Conference postseason picture through the first four months of the season, the Spurs have tailed off since the All-Star break because of Wemby’s injury.
Mitch Johnson weathers Spurs storms
38 years old, Johnson couldn’t have predicted how this season would play out back in mid-October. About to begin his ninth season with the Spurs organization and sixth in San Antonio, the former Austin Spurs assistant took the reigns when Popovich suffered a mild stroke in very nearly November.
Three months to the day later, the Silver and Black traded for Fox on February 2. Two and half weeks after that, Wembanyama was pronounced out for the year. Fast forward three weeks and it was Fox who was shut down for the rest of the season.
“With Coach Pop, to Vic, to De’Aaron, to whatever injuries and illnesses, whatever has happened through the season, he’s been able to just calm it down and say, look, ‘We’ll just take this one game at a time, one day a time’ and we’ve just got to trust it,” Vassell revealed.
No matter who they’ve lost, Johnson hasn’t lost sight of what’s helped defined the Spurs for a quarter century.
“He keeps telling us that we’ve got to hang our hats on the defensive end. I think if we keep doing that and taking pride on that end, we’ll be good.”
A recent 119-115 victory vs. the New Orleans Pelicans gave San Antonio a second win in their last three games during a stretch in which they’ve lost nine of 14 games since Wemby was diagnosed with blood clots.
“It’s a special job for Mitch to be able to – so many things have happened this year and to keep everybody together and keep leading the team and things like that,” Johnson said.
Without the winningest coach in NBA history, the reigning Rookie of the Year, and their newly acquired 2023 All-Star, the Spurs are almost certainly headed for another lottery.
“(He) Keeps guiding us and inspiring us to go out there and take care of business. I feel like he’s done an amazing job. I feel there’s been ups and downs, as expected. Through it all, he’s continued to lead us in the right direction,” Johnson concluded.
Thanks in part to Johnson, it’s a direction that’ll take shape again next season.
