Spurs' Mitch Johnson's latest successful iconic head coach

On Friday, legendary San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich changed from head coach to front office position. When he made great progress in recovery from his stroke recovery in November 2024, coaching the daily routine of the NBA franchise became too big for him.

Mitch Johnson will replace him, who led the team to a 31-45 record after taking over Popovich for the rest of last season. Johnson did the job for him - Popovich won five NBA titles with the team, and his 1,422 win was an NBA record. Fortunately, the people who follow legendary coaches to success are not unprecedented - but it is not easy.

This is a cross-sport for other coaches who follow the legendary name.


Calipari’s resume with the Wildcats is incredible – 410-122, the national champion of the 2011-12 season, made 7 appearances in the sweet 16 season. After he left last season, Mark Pope took over him, giving the team a 24-12 record and another sweet 16.


Harbaugh brought his alma mater to his first national championship since 1997. Moore led the Wolverines' offensive line to win the Joe Moore Award in 2021 and 2022.

Moore has been independently the game-day coach of Michigan State five times, leading to the Wolverines winning the bowling Green Falcons, Pennsylvania State Nitany Lions, Maryland Tarepens and Ohio State in 2023, with Harber suspending Harber. He led the Wolverines to an 8-5 record in his first season, putting Ohio State’s winner 13-10 and defeated Alabama No. 11 in the Reliaquest Bowl.


Mayo, who was promoted to 37, became the youngest head coach in the NFL, a championship that Los Angeles Rams's Sean McVay (a month older than Mayo) had before. He joined Belichick's coaching staff in 2019 as the back coach. Prior to that, he played a defender for New England from 2008 to 2015 after being drafted in the first round. Mayo is familiar with the franchise and points out the player's support. His debut, however, was a disaster, with the team entering the game 4-13. The team fired him at the end of the 2024-25 season.


Mike Krzyzewski to Jon Scheyer (Duke Blue Devils)

After 47 years of coaching career and five national titles, Krzyzewski retired and Scheyer took over some huge shoes. Scheyer proved to be a challenge. He led the Blue Devils to win the ACC Championship 27-9 in his first season and was unbeaten at home. Scheyer is the first coach in conference history to release an unbeaten home record in its debut season. He led the Blue Devils to the semi-finals in his third year.


Davis shines in his first season with coach Tar Heels in North Carolina. Williams’ successor brought epic games in the NCAA Championship, ultimately a journey to compete in the National Championship. Davis joins elite clubs that make the final four players (1991), assistant coaches (2016 and 2017) and head coaches (2022). In his third season, he led the team to 16 strokes but fell 64 rounds in the fourth inning.


Phil Jackson to Tim Floyd (Chicago Bulls)

It's very unfair to Floyd - not only has he had to follow up with Jackson's 545-193 record and six NBA titles, but he has to do it without Michael Jordan, Scotty Piper, Dennis Rodman or Steve Kerr. Floyd led 49-190 with the Bulls and resigned in December 2001.


It is not easy to replace the person they named the championship trophy. No wonder - Lombardy won five titles, two of which were Super Bowls and scored an 89-29-4 record. Bengtson inherited him after the 1967 season, but only scored 20-21-1 in a single-game victory season. He resigned before the 1971 season.


Few people in history represent women’s college basketball like Pat Summitt. She coached Tennessee in 1974 and retired in 2012 and won a record 1,098-208 for eight NCAA Championships. Warlick coached the team before 2019 and she wasn't slacking off despite not winning the championship - Tennessee won three sweet 16s and two Classics 172-67, making eight more appearances during her tenure.


John Wooden to Gene Bartow (UCLA men's basketball)

Imagine that after a college basketball idol, he won 10 NCAA titles, including seven consecutive titles. This is the task of Gene Bartow taking over John Wooden after he won the last title in the 1974-75 season. Strangely, Barto actually has a general Better Winning UCLA's winning percentage (compared to .808 of wooden, .836), but only two seasons, entering the final four seasons.


Tom Landry to Jimmy Johnson (Dallas Cowboy)

Tom Landry didn't get a record of victory until his seventh season as Cowboys head coach - which was even more impressive with two Super Bowl titles in a final record of 250-162. Johnson, formerly coach of the Miami Hurricanes, started his Cowboy tenure in a similar way, starting at 8-24 in his first two seasons before turning the situation around and winning a pair of Super Bowls with the U.S. team. Speaking of following icons...


Don Shula to Jimmy Johnson (Miami Dolphin)

Shula remains the best head coach in the NFL in 328 games in the regular season. He had a .659 win rate with the Dolphins and led them to two Super Bowl titles, including the league's only unbeaten season. The Dolphins hired Johnson as their successor to the 1996-97 season. Despite not coaching since 1993-94, Johnson maintained the Dolphins' respect, which led them to a 36-28 record with two playoff wins in four seasons.


Few managers are better at baseball than with the Yankees' Joe Torre. In his 12 seasons in managing the team, he won a winning rate of 0.605 and won four World Series titles, three of which were three in a row. In Girardi's first season, the team ranked third in AL East but roared in his sophomore effort to win the 2009 World Series sophomore effort. During his tenure at Girardi, New York will receive a win rate of 0.562 and he left when his contract expires after the 2017 season.


McGraw's Battle The Irish played the NCAA Championships from 1995 to 2019 each year and won two championships in 2001 and 2018. During her time at Notre Dame, she won 848-251 with a winning rate of 0.772. Ivey's first season as successor was cut due to the No. 19 pandemic, but she scored a sweet 16 for the second time, with an overall record of 34-20.


Bowden won 21 bowl games with Florida State, including two national titles, with a total of 304-97-4. Jimbo Fisher received the ball where he left, won the championship in his fourth season and won the .783 win with an 83-23 record, which was higher than Bowden's score. Fisher will stay on the team from 2010 to 2017 before leaving the coach Texas A&M coach.


Barry Switzer to Gary Gibbs

Switzer won three national titles and became Oklahoma head coach 157-29-4, but resigned in several scandals of 1989. Gibbs faced several NCAA sanctions challenges in the Sooners program, but he still scored a 44-23-2 record in the 44-23-2 game during his tenure as head coach.