Gregg Popovich Children: Who Are Jill and Micky and What Do They Do?

For nearly three decades, Gregg Popovich was the face of the San Antonio Spurs, building championships, developing generations of players and becoming the winningest head coach in NBA history. Yet anyone who listened closely to Popovich over the years probably noticed something important. Basketball was never the only thing that defined him.

Away from the court, Popovich built his life around his wife, Erin Popovich, their two children, Jill and Micky, and later his grandchildren. His family remained mostly outside the spotlight, which was very much intentional. Popovich rarely invited cameras into his private world and consistently made it clear that the people waiting at home mattered more than wins, trophies or coaching records.

His family story also includes tremendous loss. Erin died in 2018 after more than four decades of marriage. Popovich has since spoken with unusual openness about what she meant to him and how their children helped keep the family together after her death.

In May 2025, Popovich ended his 29-season run as Spurs head coach and moved fully into his role as president of basketball operations. The Spurs still list him in that executive position today.

Gregg Popovich Was Married to Erin Popovich for More Than 40 Years

Erin Popovich was far more than the wife of a famous NBA coach. Within the Popovich family, she was the person Gregg later described as their emotional center.

The couple met through their connection to the United States Air Force Academy. Gregg had attended the academy before returning as an assistant coach during the 1970s. Erin’s father had also worked at the academy as an athletic trainer.

Their relationship developed long before Popovich became one of basketball’s most recognisable coaches. They married while he was still building his coaching career, years before the championships, packed NBA arenas and national attention became part of everyday life.

Erin largely avoided publicity as Gregg’s career grew. She was not regularly seen sitting courtside or trying to become part of the celebrity world surrounding professional sports. That suited the way Popovich handled his private life as well.

The couple built a home together while his career gradually moved from college basketball into the NBA and eventually to San Antonio.

They remained married for more than four decades.

Erin Popovich Died in 2018

The Popovich family experienced a major loss when Erin died in April 2018 at the age of 67 after dealing with a long illness.

The Spurs announced her death, and the reaction around the NBA showed how respected she had become among people who knew the family personally. At the time, Spurs executive R.C. Buford remembered Erin for her strength, kindness, intelligence, humor and support.

Erin and Gregg had spent decades together, including virtually the entire period in which he developed into an NBA championship coach.

Gregg rarely discussed his private grief in detail immediately afterward, but his later remarks made clear how central she had been to his life.

When Popovich was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2023, he described Erin as the family’s “center of gravity” and credited her with making their life meaningful.

The comment said a lot in only a few words. Behind one of basketball’s most demanding coaches was a marriage that existed long before the world knew Gregg Popovich simply as “Pop.”

Erin’s death in 2018 followed an extended illness, and she and Gregg had two children and two grandchildren.

Who Are Gregg Popovich’s Children?

Gregg and Erin Popovich had two children, daughter Jill Popovich and son Micky Popovich.

Neither followed their father into a highly public coaching career. That fits with the private environment Gregg and Erin created around their family.

Micky has been described by his father as an artist and musician based in Seattle. Jill has occasionally appeared publicly in connection with issues that were especially important to her mother and family.

During his Hall of Fame speech, Popovich mentioned both children while talking about how the family continued after Erin’s death.

His comments were warm but still sounded unmistakably like Popovich. He described Jill as someone who had taken on an important role in keeping everyone together, while also joking about how Erin used to talk with him about basketball decisions.

It was a rare public glimpse into the Popovich household.

The famous coach who could appear intimidating during sideline interviews sounded much more like a father talking about the personalities inside his own family.

Jill Popovich Helped Honor Her Mother’s Memory

Jill Popovich became involved in efforts connected to her mother’s health experience.

She has spoken publicly about the difficulties the family faced while trying to understand Erin’s illness and the limited information they initially found about what she was experiencing.

An endowment bearing Erin Popovich’s name was established through the CHEST Foundation, supporting work related to interstitial lung disease.

For Jill, the cause was deeply personal.

She has described her mother as someone who did not spend much time complaining about her own struggles. Even while dealing with health problems, Erin apparently maintained the same strength family and friends had long associated with her.

That perspective adds another layer to the woman Gregg Popovich described as the foundation of their family.

Erin was private during her life, but the family’s efforts after her death helped connect her name with work intended to assist other people facing serious lung disease.

Micky Popovich Built a Life Away From Basketball

Gregg Popovich’s son Micky has maintained an especially private profile.

During his Hall of Fame remarks, Popovich identified his son as an artist and musician living in Seattle.

It is an interesting contrast with his father’s career.

Gregg spent decades working inside one of America’s largest professional sports leagues, where nearly every important decision became public news. Micky followed a much quieter creative path.

Popovich has never seemed troubled by his children’s decision to stay outside the NBA spotlight. If anything, his public comments suggest that basketball achievements were secondary when he talked about his family.

He was proud of his children simply for who they became.

Gregg Popovich Is Also a Grandfather

Perhaps the easiest way to see Popovich’s softer side is through the way he talks about his grandchildren.

Gregg and Erin became grandparents to two grandchildren, and Popovich has jokingly called them the true stars of the family.

During his Hall of Fame speech, he teased Jill and Micky that they had become less interesting to him now that grandchildren were around.

The joke worked because it sounded familiar to almost any parent who has watched their own parents become grandparents.

For a coach famous for intense practices and short answers to reporters, Popovich’s affection for his grandchildren offered another side of his personality.

Basketball might have consumed enormous amounts of his time, but it clearly never replaced family.

Gregg Popovich Grew Up in Indiana

Popovich’s ideas about community and family can also be traced partly to his childhood.

He was born in East Chicago, Indiana, in 1949 to Raymond and Katherine Popovich. His father was Serbian and his mother was Croatian. He spent part of his childhood in the Sunnyside housing project in a diverse working-class community closely tied to the steel industry.

After his parents separated following his fifth-grade year, Popovich moved with his mother to Merrillville, Indiana.

The experience gave him a childhood very different from the luxurious world sometimes associated with modern professional sports.

Accounts of his early years describe neighborhoods filled with families from different cultural backgrounds whose lives were often connected by the same local industries.

His Indiana roots remained important to him long after he became one of the NBA’s biggest coaching names. Contemporary profiles identify Raymond as Serbian and Katherine as Croatian, while noting that his parents separated when Gregg was still young.

Why Gregg Popovich Kept His Family Private

Popovich spent much of his career deliberately separating his professional identity from his home life.

Reporters could ask about basketball. Access to his family was another matter.

He did not regularly participate in home-life television features, and Erin repeatedly remained outside the usual publicity surrounding the spouse of a famous coach.

That decision appears to have allowed Jill and Micky to grow up without becoming extensions of their father’s celebrity.

It also matched Popovich’s broader attitude toward fame.

Even after five NBA championships and countless individual honors, he rarely appeared particularly interested in being treated like a celebrity. He preferred directing attention toward his players, assistants, staff and organization.

When he did discuss his family, however, the difference was noticeable.

Those conversations often became more personal.

Family Influenced the Way Popovich Coached

The importance Popovich placed on family did not stop at his front door.

Former Spurs players and assistants have repeatedly described a workplace where personal responsibilities were treated seriously.

Robert Horry once recalled a time when his daughter was ill and Popovich told him not to return to the team until she was out of the hospital.

Other players have described team dinners where conversations ranged far beyond basketball. Wine, travel, history, culture and family could become as important as the next opponent.

That approach helped explain why so many former players developed long relationships with Popovich.

Tony Parker has referred to him in fatherly terms, while other players have talked about Popovich helping them through difficult periods that had little to do with their performance on the court.

He demanded plenty as a coach, but he also seemed to understand that players had lives beyond the arena.

Gregg Popovich’s Life After Coaching

Popovich’s long head-coaching career officially ended in May 2025 after 29 seasons with the Spurs.

He had missed most of the 2024-25 season after suffering a stroke in November 2024. Mitch Johnson, who handled coaching responsibilities during Popovich’s absence, was later named the team’s permanent head coach.

Popovich did not leave the organization. He transitioned fully into his position as Spurs president of basketball operations, keeping him connected to the franchise he helped shape for decades.

It was the end of one extraordinary chapter, but family had already taught Popovich that basketball careers eventually become secondary.

He has five NBA championships, three NBA Coach of the Year awards, a Hall of Fame place and more head-coaching wins than anyone in league history.

Still, some of his most memorable personal comments have had nothing to do with those achievements.

They have been about Erin, Jill, Micky and his grandchildren.

For Gregg Popovich, basketball created an extraordinary career. His family gave that career perspective.