MILWAUKEE (AP) — Milwaukee Bucks guard Damian Lillard isn’t sure exactly when he will be playing again. He’s just grateful that moment will come sooner than anyone could have reasonably expected.
Lillard was cleared for full-scale basketball activities and taken off blood-thinning medication this week after missing the last month with deep vein thrombosis in his right calf. The news comes as the Bucks prepare to open the playoffs Saturday at Indiana.
Deep vein thrombosis is an abnormal clot within a vessel where the congealing of blood blocks the flow through on the way back to the heart.
“Obviously there’s people with way worse issues than I’ve dealt with, so I don’t want to be dramatic about it, but you just never know when something could come up and change your life,” Lillard said Friday. “It’s been guys like Chris Bosh who dealt with this and then it’s another issue and it could be a career-ending thing, so I think you just can’t take days and opportunities and things in your life for granted.”
Lillard couldn’t do much from a basketball standpoint beyond shooting free throws while he was on the blood-thinning medication, but the seven-time All-NBA guard said specialists permitted him to do some exercises, such as lifting weights, that could hasten his return to the court now that he’s been cleared.
The Bucks have ruled him out for Saturday’s game.
“I knew that if there was a chance that I could come back and play, I didn’t just want to be sitting around doing nothing,” said Lillard, who practiced Thursday without restrictions.
Returning to the court wasn’t his primary concern when he got the diagnosis. He was more worried about how this might impact him on a personal level.
Lillard said he was familiar with the potential impact of blood clots because of a cousin who dealt with a blood clot in his calf without being aware of it during the pandemic.
“During COVID, they couldn’t get him in because everything was on Zoom, and he ended up having a pulmonary embolism and dying, so obviously that’s the first thing that comes to mind,” Lillard said.
Lillard said he was at dinner last month when he noticed his leg was swollen and felt particularly tight, different from a typical calf strain. Once he learned he had DVT, he started envisioning all the scary possibilities.
“The millions of thoughts that went through my head like, ‘Man, what if this? What if that?’" Lillard said. “I was panicking. My back randomly started hurting, my chest started hurting, and I’m like, ‘Man, is it moving?’ I’m thinking all kinds of stuff.”
Lillard said he initially didn’t really ask his doctors when he might play again and instead focused on how long it takes for a clot to go away and stop becoming an issue.
“The term they kept using was you’re not a 65-year-old person coming in that usually would have a blood clot,” Lillard said. “It’s like, you’re a 34-year-old athlete, you’re in good shape, your body is strong. That was kind of like the language they used.
“But I would say what made it a different thing is I was able to go in weekly. That’s not the usual protocol. If it’s something where you’re on a blood-thinning medication, I feel like it’s more of a drawn-out process where they’ll just go that route, as opposed to me going in every week, doing labs, getting the ultrasound. I was kind of going in each week just monitoring it inch-by-inch pretty much, just to see if it was like even a little progress or just to make sure that it was going how I wanted it to go.”
Lillard’s potential return is coming remarkably fast.
Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs was diagnosed with DVT in his shoulder after he returned from the All-Star Game and was quickly ruled out for the season. Bosh’s career was cut short after he was diagnosed with blood clots while playing with Miami.
Lillard says doctors have told him his case was unusual.
“They were just like, ‘We don’t see this,’ “ Lillard said. “For me, I was just like, it was a different experience for me because I went in there a bunch of times and it was the same size. So I’m like, it didn’t seem that special, and then it just reached a point where it just got a lot smaller out of nowhere.”
Now he’s on the verge of playing again. Bucks coach Doc Rivers believes Lillard’s attitude has something to do with his rapid return.
“He just kept saying, ‘I’m going to get through this,'" Rivers said. “The energy of positive thinking, there may be something there. There is in this case, I can tell you that.”
Exactly when Lillard will take the floor remains uncertain. Lillard doesn’t want to set a particular target date because he’s not quite sure exactly when he’ll be ready after not having any real basketball activity at all for a month. The last game he played was on March 18.
“The moment that I feel I can go, I’m going to go,” Lillard said.
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba
FILE - Milwaukee Bucks' Damian Lillard shoots a free throw during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Orlando Magic, March 8, 2025, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash, File)
Milwaukee Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard watch from the bench during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Detroit Pistons, Sunday, April 13, 2025, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Gregg Popovich stepped down as coach of the San Antonio Spurs on Friday, ending a three-decade run that saw him lead the team to five NBA championships, become the league’s all-time wins leader and earn induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
“While my love and passion for the game remain, I’ve decided it’s time to step away as head coach,” Popovich said.
He will remain as team president. Mitch Johnson, a Spurs assistant who filled in for Popovich for the season's final 77 games, becomes the team's head coach.
Popovich, 76, missed all but five games this season after having a stroke at the team’s arena on Nov. 2. He has not spoken publicly since, though had addressed his team at least once and released a statement in late March saying that he hoped to return to coaching.
That won’t be happening.
“I’m forever grateful to the wonderful players, coaches, staff and fans who allowed me to serve them as the Spurs head coach and am excited for the opportunity to continue to support the organization, community and city that are so meaningful to me," Popovich said.
Popovich’s career ends with a record of 1,422-869, which does include the 77 games — 32 wins and 45 losses — that were coached by Johnson this season. He also won 170 playoff games with the Spurs, the most by any coach with any one team and the third-most overall behind only Phil Jackson’s 229 and Pat Riley’s 171.
“The best there ever was,” Spurs great Manu Ginobili said last year of Popovich.
Popovich was a three-time coach of the year, led the U.S. to a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics and coached six Hall of Famers in San Antonio — Ginobili, David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Dominique Wilkins and Pau Gasol. He went up against 170 different coaches during his time in the NBA and there have been 303 coaching changes made in the league, including interim moves, during the Popovich era.
“I’ve got a video on my phone that’s, like, priceless,” said Chris Paul, who played for the Spurs this past season — going there, in large part, because of the lure of playing for Popovich. “It was us in Oklahoma City, before shootaround, and Pop is doing ballhandling stuff. All these years I’ve always seen Pop coaching in a suit, but I didn’t know how hard of a worker he was when it comes to training.”
That work ethic, Paul said, carried over into this year after the stroke and Popovich’s commitment to his rehabilitation process.
“I was the first one to get to the arena for games, and I would walk past the training room and Pop would be on the treadmill,” Paul said. “I actually had a chance to be in there while Pop is doing rehab or whatnot. So, to see how hard he works, that’s what I’m glad I got a chance to see. It had nothing to do with basketball. It just showed who he is.”
Popovich, in his role as general manager of the Spurs, made the move to fire coach Bob Hill and promote himself into that job on Dec. 10, 1996. The timing seemed, at best, awkward. The Spurs were 3-15 at that point, having played all 18 of those games without Robinson, who was just about to come back from injury. Popovich took over on the day that Robinson returned to the lineup.
“A change in direction was necessary,” Popovich said that day.
The Spurs hadn’t changed direction again since.
“Coach Pop’s extraordinary impact on our family, San Antonio, the Spurs and the game of basketball is profound,” Spurs managing partner Peter J. Holt said. “His accolades and awards don’t do justice to the impact he has had on so many people. He is truly one-of-one as a person, leader and coach. Our entire family, alongside fans from across the globe, are grateful for his remarkable 29-year run as the head coach of the San Antonio Spurs.”
The fortunes changed — Duncan was picked No. 1 overall in the 1997 draft – but the direction under Popovich always stayed the same. The first championship came in 1999; others followed in 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014. In his first 22 seasons as head coach, the Spurs had 22 winning records, the first 20 of those seasons winning at least 60% of the time.
His decision to step away now comes with the Spurs having just completed the second year of a rebuild around French star Victor Wembanyama, who arrived touted as the next San Antonio great and has done nothing to suggest he won’t live up to that billing.
Popovich played at the U.S. Air Force Academy, famously wasn’t picked in a bid to make the 1972 U.S. Olympic team — some still say he merited a spot on that team — and wound up becoming a coach who might have been perfectly content to run Pomona-Pitzer, a Division III program in California, for the entirety of his professional life. That school had lost 88 consecutive conference games when he arrived; it didn’t take long for Popovich to deliver a conference championship.
Eventually, the NBA called. In time, Popovich would be paired with Robinson, then the patriarch of a dynasty fueled by Duncan, Parker and Ginobili. And out of that, Popovich put together a career like none other.
“Everyone knows the amazing job he’s done and all the accomplishments,” longtime coach Larry Brown said in 2021. “I wish more people really could know the type of person that he is.”
He was famously grumpy, liked to clash with reporters, rarely offered any details of his basketball or private life other than what was necessary. It was simultaneously real and an act; Popovich has a much softer side as well — he quietly championed causes like the San Antonio Food Bank for years and wasn’t afraid to make his political views known. And those lucky enough to know him find him hilarious.
“He has an amazing sense of humor,” Boston forward Jayson Tatum said while playing for Popovich during the Tokyo Olympics four years ago. “I guess the casual fan sees the person who does those interviews postgame, but that’s not the case of who he is at all. I absolutely love spending time with him.”
A loss in the 2013 NBA Finals crushed Popovich, whose Spurs were in position to close out the Miami Heat in six games, lost Game 6 in overtime after Ray Allen’s 3-pointer with 5.2 seconds remaining in regulation kept the Heat alive, then fell in Game 7. But in the moments after the final horn, as Miami coach Erik Spoelstra embraced his staff, Popovich joined the hug with a wide smile.
Spoelstra, who became head coach of the Heat in 2008, now becomes the league’s longest-tenured in his current position.
“He’s always just been an incredible example of class, dignity,” Spoelstra said of Popovich. “To be able to do that after wins or losses, I just think it’s a great example that you can still have class regardless of how the outcome comes during a game.”
When the Spurs beat the Heat for the title in a finals rematch in 2014, it was Spoelstra who felt the sting of losing. And once again, it was Popovich who sent congratulations on a job well done.
“There is no one out there like Pop,” Golden State coach Steve Kerr said.
Popovich’s was a tenure like few others. Popovich coached the Spurs for 29 seasons, a span nearly unmatched in U.S. major pro sports history. Connie Mack managed the Philadelphia Athletics for 50 years, George Halas coached the Chicago Bears for 40 years and John McGraw managed the New York Giants for 31 years. Those three tenures — all wrapping up well over a half-century ago — are the only ones exceeding the length of Popovich’s coaching run with the Spurs; his 29-year era in San Antonio was matched by the Dallas Cowboys’ Tom Landry and the Green Bay Packers’ Curly Lambeau.
“It means I’m old,” Popovich said last year.
Popovich broke a gender barrier of sorts in the league when he hired Becky Hammon as the league’s first female full-time paid assistant coach. Hammon, now coach of the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces, would also become the first female head summer league coach in the NBA and first female acting head coach when she replaced Popovich for a game in 2020.
“Basketball is basketball,” South Carolina women’s coach Dawn Staley said when asked about Popovich in 2017. “It doesn’t have a gender. It has a mind. It has an approach. It has a willingness. Given the opportunity, women can excel in this game. As you can see. Becky Hammon is doing a great job. You need more people like Coach Popovich to give them opportunities to learn, to grow, and to embrace it. I don’t think he sees gender. I think he sees someone that has a great basketball mind, that’s tireless. Once you’re given that opportunity, you see great things come out of it.”
Popovich spoke about wine whenever he could and offered his views on politics and current events but rarely offered much insight into coaching decisions or personnel matters. It was almost military-like secrecy, which made sense given that Popovich was a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy and was an expert on, among other things, the rise and fall of the Soviet Union.
His love of country led to him taking a small side job during his San Antonio tenure — that being coaching USA Basketball for the 2019 World Cup and the Tokyo Olympics two years later. His World Cup team finished seventh, the worst placing ever for a U.S. team with NBA players. His Olympic team won gold.
“It’s impossible to separate it if you have been in the military,” Popovich said when asked about the parallels of being at the Air Force Academy and coaching the country’s national team. “I’ve had classmates that have fought in wars — I have not — and some of them are no longer with us. You get an appreciation for people who have sacrificed. So, when you have an opportunity to do this for your country, it’s impossible to say no. I love being part of it.”
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba
FILE - San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich, left, and guard Tony Parker, right, of France, talks during practice, Wednesday, June 12, 2013, in San Antonio, ahead of Game 4 of the NBA Finals against the Miami Heat. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
FILE - Gregg Popovich speaks during his enshrinement at the Basketball Hall of Fame as presenters David Robinson, Tony Parker, Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili, from left, listen Saturday, Aug. 12, 2023, in Springfield, Mass. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill, File)
FILE - United States players put a gold medal on head coach Gregg Popovich during the men's basketball medal ceremony at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Saturday, Aug. 7, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)
FILE - San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich, center, claps during the basketball team's parade and celebration for their fifth NBA Championship, Wednesday, June 18, 2014, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Michael Thomas, File)
