Mitch Johnson finished third in Coach of the Year voting in his first full season at the helm in San Antonio.
The award went to Boston’s Joe Mazzulla. The NBA made the announcement on Tuesday night before Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals.
Johnson’s Impact on the Spurs
Johnson took over the Spurs’ head coaching job on an interim basis after Gregg Popovich suffered a stroke last season. Before this year the Spurs announced that Johnson was their man moving forward, and some fans questioned if the 39-year-old was the right man for the job. Much like the players on the roster, Johnson is young and has never made a playoff run before.
It didn’t take long for Johnson to prove just how much he belongs at the helm of this team. Wearing a wire in the first game of the season, it went viral in the best way when he implored his team to “embrace the mundane” and hammer the details.
That level of discipline has become a calling card for Johnson’s team this season, and he has this young group playing intense, connected, relentless basketball.
Voting Results and Recognition
Detroit’s J.B. Bickerstaff finished second in the voting, and Johnson was the only other coach to receive a first-place vote with nine of them.
The Spurs vastly overperformed preseason expectations and won 62 games in the regular season, en route to the second-best record in the NBA behind only the Thunder. In the Western Conference Finals, Johnson and his staff are credited with making a huge chess move in the game-plan to even the series at two games apiece.
“Sometimes you have to adjust or react to something that they’re doing, especially at a high rate, if it’s going well for them,” Johnson said. “Obviously this team is the defending champs, and Mark [Daigneault]’s a hell of a coach, so there’s quite a bit that goes into it. I think there was a 24 hour stretch where if I wasn’t sleeping, I was doing something, trying to be better, or I was in the game. So yeah, selfishly it’s a lot of fun.”
Johnson’s Coaching Staff and Mentors
Johnson was the only coach to earn multiple Coach of the Month awards this season, and when he did he shared the credit with his staff and the whole organisation. Associate Head Coach Sean Sweeney is a defensive star, expected to draw interest from teams with vacancies this summer.
Corliss Williamson, Scott King, Matt Nielsen, and Mike Noyes round out his bench, and Johnson’s illustrious mentor Gregg Popovich is always around the team.
After that Game 4 masterpiece, Lakers legend Magic Johnson took to Twitter to give Mitch Johnson his flowers.
“The San Antonio Spurs were outstanding on defense tonight, holding NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to 19 points in their victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder,” Johnson wrote.
“Victor Wembanyama dominated the game with 33 points, but what really impressed me was his leadership and how he communicated with his teammates throughout the entire game,” the five-time.