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Spurs create special NFTs commemorating Gregg Popovich’s NBA titles and 1,336 career victories
Gregg Popovich used his famous hand-drawn play cards to help lead the San Antonio Spurs to five NBA championships and become the winningest head coach in league history.
The Spurs are commemorating Popovich’s 1,336 career wins by creating a special set of 1,336 NFT honoring the head coach. The “1,336 Coach Pop NFT Collection” features digital recreations of Popovich’s play cards. Each of the minted NFTs are available beginning March 14 on OpenSea at Spurs.com/NFT with all the proceeds going to the San Antonio Food Bank.
Popovich’s 1,336 wins surpassed Don Nelson for the most in NBA history. After starting his career as an assistant coach with the Spurs from 1988-92, Popovich went to the Golden State Warriors for two seasons as an assistant coach under Nelson, who introduced him to the well-known play cards featured on the NFTs.
Each of the 1,336 animated NFTs feature a random combination of five hand-drawn plays from Popovich along with the five Spurs court designs that have served as the floor for each of his 26 seasons in San Antonio. Iconic Spurs plays like “Loop Shields” and “Lock and Lob” are combined with classic courts like the “Spurs Icon” and “Original Spurs Fiesta Logo” with Coach Pop’s signature included on each NFT.
In honor of Popovich’s five titles, the first 5 of 1,336 will stand alone as distinct 1-of-1 NFTs featuring a completely unique play and court combination. These special five NFTs will be auctioned off to the highest bidder and will also include the original hard copy of the play card, hand-drawn and autographed by Popovich, along with a unique in-person VIP Spurs experience at a game in San Antonio next season.
The remaining 1,331 NFTs will go on sale for 0.1 ETH apiece, with each NFT featuring a random distribution of play cards and courts that will be minted based on the percentage of Popovich’s wins that came on each of San Antonio’s five home floors used during Popovich’s tenure.
Popovich led the Spurs to five NBA championships in 1999, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014 and has the third-most playoff wins in league history (170), as well as the record for most consecutive winning regular seasons with 23 in a row from 1997-2019. A three-time NBA Coach of the Year in 2003, 2012 and 2014, he currently stands as the longest tenured active coach in all four U.S. major sports leagues. Internationally, Popovich served as head coach of the USA Basketball Senior Men’s National Team from 2017- 20 and led Team USA to a gold medal at the 2020 Olympics.
Available exclusively on OpenSea, fans can bid or purchase the Popovich NFTs only by using Ethereum. Fans will need to set up an OpenSea account and a crypto wallet, like a MetaMask Wallet, in order to participate. The Spurs partnered with Cultos on minting the collection, all of which after purchase can be traded or resold on the marketplace of the owner’s choosing.
The “1,336 Coach Pop NFT Collection” auction goes live on Monday, March 14 at 9 a.m. CT and runs through Thursday, March 17 at 9 p.m. CT at Spurs.com/NFT, where the remaining NFTs will also go on sale simultaneously.
