Last Man Standing Pop outlasted them all. Darren Abate/Associated Press Marc Stein When it comes to Gregg Popovich and finding out how much longer he intends to coach the San Antonio Spurs, we’re all just going to have to wait. Popovich made that clear when we spoke last week. He’s simply not yet sure if he’ll be back on the Spurs’ bench next season — even though he is committed to coach Team U.S.A. in international competition in each of the next two summers. He also left little doubt, unsurprisingly, that he’s not prepared to publicly discuss the variables he’ll be considering when he does decide that this season is or isn’t his finale. What we can definitively declare, six days away from Pop’s 70th birthday, is that the biggest challenge in Spurs history is dribbling closer and closer into view — even if we can’t pinpoint an exact date when it will arrive. Hard as it has been for San Antonians to get over the way Kawhi Leonard spurned them last season, harder days without the franchise patriarch loom uncomfortably in the not-so-distant future. A Parallel Across the Pond I was thinking about this long before my recent trip to San Antonio for Leonard’s Jan. 3 return with the Raptors, when Kawhi was booed with as much venom as a basketball visitor to South Texas has ever been booed. It’s frankly been on my mind since mid-September, when I made my annual pilgrimage to England for a week (and change) of soccer-watching. One of my rituals on those trips is to try to stay on U.S. time to help with my body clock’s transition back to work. So that meant routinely staying up until 3 or 4 in the morning and watching Sky Sports News to keep me going in those wee hours. It’s a routine that had me hooked nightly on the drama that soaked Jose Mourinho, the flamboyant former Manchester United manager. It was during my trip that Mourinho’s relationship with Paul Pogba, the mercurial French midfielder, began to unravel spectacularly. Mourinho wound up keeping his job until Dec. 18, but it was already evident before I had to head home for the start of N.B.A. training camps that his grip on one of the most high-profile coaching jobs in world sport was irretrievably slipping. All I kept thinking, watching the seemingly nonstop coverage night after night, was that United would soon be forced to move on to its fifth manager in less than six seasons following the retirement of the iconic Sir Alex Ferguson. All I kept thinking, to be more precise, was how the Mourinho saga might translate over here. As in: What if the Spurs have as much trouble replacing Popovich as United has faced trying to find a worthy successor to Ferguson? Or even half as much trouble? Call Him Sir Pop With apologies to Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots, even as he bids for a sixth Super Bowl crown, I would still submit that Pop is America’s best answer to Sir Alex. Popovich (in his 23rd season) and Ferguson (who reigned for 28) share a level of success and longevity essentially unrivaled in modern coaching. They are also synonymous with their respective franchises — although it must be said that Popovich and Tim Duncan, not unlike Belichick and Tom Brady, are difficult to separate. Yet it’s a comparison, however apt and complimentary, that has to be daunting for Spurs fans. Only now, on the fifth try, does it appear that United got a managerial appointment right — and even this time Mourinho’s replacement, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, merely sports the title of caretaker manager and is not assured of getting the job full time. It thus seems safe to conclude that the eventual exit of Popovich, even if he winds up staying on as a Red Auerbach-style organizational overseer when he’s done with day-to-day coaching, has the potential to create a bigger void than even someone as good as Leonard could. ‘Pop Can’t Go Out Like This’ San Antonio, after all, is surviving Leonard’s departure better than most forecasters imagined, with Popovich coaxing the maximum out of a roster that not only lacks the 3-point shooting so prevalent in the modern game but also the continuity that the Spurs are known for. Despite all the competition in the West, 10 new players to manage post-Kawhi and the loss of the projected starting point guard Dejounte Murray to a season-ending knee injury in September, Pop and his Spurs entered Tuesday’s play at 27-21, good for a solid No. 6 in the West. No longer do you hear “Pop can’t go out like this” whispers, which did circulate during the Spurs’ 11-14 start, because he has so dramatically turned things around. When you consider how much Popovich has poured (and keeps pouring) into this franchise alongside his trusty front-office sidekick R.C. Buford, who could dare quibble if he decides to walk away at season’s end? After all those years he told us that he’d be the first one out the door when the inimitable Duncan stopped playing, Popovich has instead outlasted all the Spurs’ mainstays. Duncan retired in July 2016. Manu Ginobili retired last summer. Tony Parker signed with Charlotte in free agency before the Leonard trade upon learning from Popovich that, at age 36, his role would be reduced. When I saw Parker in October, I asked him if he found it as surprising as I did that Popovich was the last pillar left. “I know what you mean,” Parker said. “If I’m surprised that he’s by himself — yeah, a little bit. But he loves to coach. He loves basketball. He’s passionate about it. He wants to keep it going.” When you go for this long and do it this well, it also means you earn the right to stay as long as you like. The same holds for walking away with as much or as little notice as you prefer — just like Timmy did.