SAN ANTONIO, TX — When Gregg Popovich took over the San Antonio Spurs in 1996, the franchise was a modest, small-market team in an era dominated by big-city clubs. Owner Peter Holt had just paid $76 million for the team, and very few expected the Spurs to become perennial contenders. Yet under Popovich’s steady hand, San Antonio’s Spurs quietly transformed into a dynasty. Over the next two decades, Popovich guided the team to five NBA championships and an unprecedented streak of 22 consecutive playoff appearances from 1998 through 2019. In 2019 the Spurs even tied the NBA record with their 22nd straight postseason. As Popovich accumulated wins and titles, the Spurs’ economic stature rose in parallel. Forbes valued the franchise at about $1.6 billion in 2019 – up twenty-fold from Holt’s purchase price – and by the mid-2020s it had surpassed the multi-billion-dollar mark, making San Antonio one of the league’s most valuable teams. (For comparison, Forbes later estimated the Spurs’ value at roughly $3.85 billion.)
Notably, these financial gains came despite San Antonio’s small-market challenges. The Spurs operate in the nation’s seventh-largest city, yet their media market and local revenues lag major metros. Still, diligent management and long-term corporate partnerships helped drive steady growth. For example, the club reported surge after surge in fan interest: immediately after winning the 2023 NBA Draft lottery, the Spurs sold 4,000 new season-ticket deposits and saw a 3,000% jump in online ticket traffic. Projections for 2024 ticket revenue climbed into the triple digits (nearly $110 million by some estimates) as fans eagerly awaited rookie phenom Victor Wembanyama. Merchandise sales also exploded, with Wembanyama’s No. 1 jersey quickly breaking team sales records. All told, the Spurs have grown from a $56 million annual revenue operation in the late 1990s to on the order of a few hundred million dollars a year in revenue by 2024, sustaining profitability even as local TV ratings waver.
Popovich’s influence extended far beyond wins and losses. He was a pioneer in several basketball innovations that spread league-wide. Early on he aggressively scouted international talent, drafting Argentine guard Manu Ginóbili in 1999 and French point guard Tony Parker in 2001 – players who became key pieces of the Spurs’ championship teams. These gambles on overseas stars paid off handsomely and prompted other teams to widen their scouting nets. Popovich also blazed trails in player health and analytics. Years before “load management” became NBA parlance, he occasionally sat starters to keep them fresh, famously resting Tim Duncan, Manu Ginóbili, Tony Parker and Danny Green at Miami in 2012 even without injuries. The NBA initially fined him for that decision, but the strategy presaged the league’s later embrace of managing minutes.
On the strategic side, Popovich and his staff were early adopters of advanced analytics. The Spurs became known for exploiting the high-value “corner three” – the shortest NBA 3-point shot – long before most other teams did. As one analysis notes, “San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich discovered the most valuable 21 inches on an NBA basketball court, and nothing has been the same since”. Popovich’s offenses prioritized high-efficiency shots: corner threes and shots at the rim, hallmarks of modern offensive schemes. This data-driven, team-first approach helped the Spurs remain competitive even as stars aged, ensuring they had one of the NBA’s best offenses year after year. In short, Popovich married old-school fundamentals (passing, defense, teamwork) with new-school smart planning (rest regimens, shot analytics), staying ahead of trends on the court.
Beyond San Antonio, Popovich’s Spurs have been a template for sustainable success, especially for smaller markets. His “coaching tree” has spread influence across the NBA. Assistants and players under Popovich have become championship-winning coaches and executives – Steve Kerr (Golden State Warriors), Mike Budenholzer (Milwaukee Bucks), and Ime Udoka (Boston Celtics), among others – carrying forward many Spurs principles. Notably, Kerr’s Warriors are now valued at $8.8 billion, Budenholzer’s Bucks at $4.0 billion, and Udoka’s Celtics at $6.0 billion. In total these teams represent well over $15 billion in NBA franchise value, testimony to the potent mix of winning and strong management learned from San Antonio.
Likewise, the Spurs’ blueprint of drafting and developing talent has become a model for fellow small-market franchises like Oklahoma City and Memphis. These clubs have avoided expensive free-agent splurges and instead stockpiled draft picks and focused on player development, following San Antonio’s example. On the business side, the Spurs’ reputation for stability attracted new investors: in 2021 a private equity group (via Sixth Street’s Arctos Sports Fund) paid into the Spurs at an estimated $1.8 billion valuation, essentially betting that Popovich’s culture and leadership would keep the team on an upward trajectory. The team’s conservative financial management (for instance, locking in long-term local sponsorships and a strong corporate culture) further underpinned steady revenue growth through the 2010s.
Yet Popovich’s stewardship has not been without challenges. The Spurs have weathered a recent downturn in TV viewership – mirroring league-wide rating dips – and navigated a difficult rebuilding phase after trading star Kawhi Leonard in 2018. In fact, the Spurs’ record-tying 22-year playoff run ended when they missed the 2020 postseason. Still, signs of life returned with Wembanyama’s arrival in 2023. The French rookie’s debut season re-energized the fan base: ticket sales soared, merchandise demand spiked (a >200% jump in Wemby jersey sales year-over-year has been reported), and the Spurs’ social media following surged by over a million new followers.
In sum, Popovich’s legacy is built on patience, adaptability, and empathy – qualities that earned him comparisons to one of the all-time great investors. As one league insider put it, “Popovich is the Warren Buffett of sports – patient, adaptable and emotionally intelligent.” He will be remembered not just for championships, but for cultivating a winning ethos and business model that reshaped how teams operate on and off the court.
