SAN ANTONIO (AP) — The San Antonio Spurs are unsure when, or if, Gregg Popovich will return as coach this season.
Popovich suffered an undisclosed medical episode last Saturday about 2 1/2 hours prior to the Spurs' home game against Minnesota.
San Antonio acting head coach Mitch Johnson said Popovich was “not feeling well,” but would not elaborate on what happened hours earlier.
Popovich has missed three games since, including Thursday’s home game against Portland.
When asked if there was any clarity about Popovich returning this season, Johnson could not provide an answer.
“I would say that … he’s doing good,” Johnson said Thursday. “We’ve been talking. I’ve had my hands full with this, in trying to stay above water. So, have not talked details and I’m not sure, about anything … that I’m … no details.”
Popovich is the oldest coach in NBA history at 75 years old. In 2020, he surpassed the previous mark held by Hubie Brown as a 71-year-old in his final game as Memphis’ head coach.
Popovich is the NBA’s career leader with 1,390 victories and another 170 postseason wins while winning five NBA titles. He is in his 29th season, all with San Antonio.
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San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich gives instructions to his players during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco’s first Black female mayor, London Breed, conceded the race for mayor to Levi Strauss heir Daniel Lurie on Thursday, pledging a smooth transition as he takes over the job.
The Associated Press has not yet declared a winner because tens of thousand of ballots have not yet been counted and added to the ranked choice voting calculations.
Breed, who was raised by her grandmother in public housing, could not overcome deep voter discontent and was trailing Lurie, a philanthropist and anti-poverty nonprofit founder.
“At the end of the day, this job is bigger than any one person and what matters is that we keep moving this City forward,” Breed said, adding that she had called Lurie to congratulate him. “I know we are both committed to improving this City we love.”
While San Francisco’s streets have been cleaner and homeless tents much harder to find in recent months, Breed’s fellow Democratic challengers on the campaign trail repeatedly hammered her administration for doing too little, too late as homeless tent encampments, open-air drug use and brazen retail theft proliferated during her six years in office.
She faced four big-name challengers, including two San Francisco supervisors and a former interim mayor.
But voters flocked to Lurie, 47, a city native from a storied family who pledged to bring accountability and public service back to City Hall. He is the founder of Tipping Point Community, which says it has invested more than $400 million since 2005 in programs to help people with housing, education and early childhood.
“I’m deeply grateful to my incredible family, campaign team and every San Franciscan who voted for accountability, service, and change,” Lurie said in a statement. “No matter who you supported in this election, we stand united in the fight for San Francisco’s future and a safer and more affordable city for all.”
Lurie pumped nearly $9 million of his own money into his first-time bid for mayor, which drew criticism from Breed and other opponents. But he said that as a political outsider, he needed to introduce himself to voters and in the end, some voters said they liked that Lurie’s financial wealth shielded him from being beholden to special interests.
Lurie is an heir to the Levi Strauss & Co. fortune through his mother, Mimi Haas, who wed Peter Haas when Daniel was a child. Peter Haas, a great-grandnephew of Levi Strauss, was a longtime CEO of the iconic clothing company who died in 2005.
Both the Levi’s name and Haas family philanthropic foundations are deeply embedded in San Francisco’s history and identity.
Lurie’s father, Brian Lurie, is a rabbi and longtime former executive director of the San Francisco-based Jewish Community Federation.
Breed won election as mayor in June 2018 to serve out the remainder of Mayor Ed Lee’s term.
She was reelected in 2019 to a full term that has lasted five years instead of the typical four, after voters changed the election calendar to line up with presidential contests.
Mayor London Breed speaks during an election night watch party at Little Skillet in San Francisco on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (Gabrielle Lurie/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
