6/9/26
NBA basketball has not been as prevalent in Washington state since the Seattle SuperSonics were stolen and moved to Oklahoma City. The Portland Trail Blazers are still a popular team, even more popular as the only team in the region. However, a lack of success in recent years for the Blazers have seen talk around them dwindle as well.
When the NBA Finals roll around, people pay attention and usually have a reason to root for one team or another. Last year, the entire region became Indiana Pacers fans to root against the Oklahoma City Thunder for obvious reasons. Sometimes, there are certain players like Michael Porter Jr. that the region roots for due to their ties to the PNW.
This season’s NBA Finals have pitted the New York Knicks against the San Antonio Spurs in a battle of two teams that weren’t anticipated to be there. The Knicks are in the Finals for the first time since 1999, when they lost to the San Antonio Spurs. The Spurs were expected to be a couple years away from being true contenders, but Victor Wembanyama has taken over the league with a terrific supporting cast featuring Stephon Castle and De’Aaron Fox.
Of course one player does have ties to the PNW in San Antonio’s Kelly Olynyk who played a part in building Gonzaga to the college basketball powerhouse that they are today. But he is not the only Spur to represent Washington.
Taking over on November 2nd, 2024 as the interim head coach of the San Antonio Spurs, Mitch Johnson had all the pressure you could imagine on his shoulders. He wasn’t just taking over a team with the next face of the league in Wembanyama, but he was taking over a perennial contender and stepping in for a first ballot Hall of Famer in Gregg Popovich. The five-time NBA Champion head coach and three-time coach of the year, Popovich was the most respected coach in the league at the time he stepped away. He won 1,390 games in his 29-years as head coach of the San Antonio Spurs which is the most by any coach in NBA history. He also the Spurs to an NBA record 22 consecutive winning seasons all while coaching legends like Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginóbili. He also coached team USA to a gold medal in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. There is next to nothing that Gregg Popovich has not done in the sport of basketball.
Not many people would be eager to take over and fill the massive void left by Popovich who had to retire due to health issues and transition into a front office role. But this wasn’t the first Hall of Famer Mitch Johnson stepped in for. He was promoted to be a full-time assistant coach back in 2020 taking over for…Tim Duncan, a five-time NBA Champion as a player, three-time NBA Finals MVP, and two-time NBA MVP. He also was tasked in being the man to get Victor Wembanyama to go before every NBA game. So yeah, if none of the that has rattled Mitch Johnson, it is safe to say nothing will.
Mitch Johnson is the PNW tie to the San Antonio Spurs that fans in the northwest have been looking for. Johnson was born in Seattle on November 29th, 1986 and played his high school basketball at 3A powerhouse in O’Dea. He led the Fighting Irish to two state titles and was twice named to the All-State team. He would play college ball at Stanford, going to the Sweet 16 in 2008 along with the Lopez brothers in Brook and Robin who have had successful NBA careers. Johnson would end up second in all-time assists at Stanford and remains there still today.
After going undrafted and playing in the D-League and even over in Europe, Johnson began his coaching career at Seattle U before becoming an assistant at the University of Portland. He would then jump to the G League as an assistant to the Austin Spurs before joining San Antonio in 2019. Johnson was promoted to the head coach of the Spurs in May of 2025, giving him his first head coaching job outside of an AAU stint.
Right now, the Spurs find themselves down 2-1 in the best-of-seven series with game 4 taking place tonight at Madison Square Garden at 5:30pm. A win for the Spurs would give them back the homecourt advantage with games 5 and 7 scheduled to take place in San Antonio if needed. If the Spurs can comeback and win the series, Mitch Johnson would become the 15th coach in NBA history to win a title under the age of 40. He would also become the first Washington born head coach to win an NBA Championship.
Basketball and the PNW are very intertwined so if you are looking to support Washington, Mitch Johnson is your guy and the San Antonio Spurs are your team.
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