With the announcement of Pop’s retirement, a question arises — should the San Antonio Spurs retire a jersey in his honor?

There is precedence for honoring a coach who never played NBA ball.

Some coaches have been given non-basketball jersey numbers representing their number of wins as head coach.

The Denver Nuggets honored Doug Moe with #432. The Indiana Pacers retired #529 for Bobby Leonard. Red Holzman had #613 retired by the New York Knicks. And the Utah Jazz retired #1223 for the collective regular season and playoff wins for Jerry Sloan.

By that standard, the Spurs could retire #1422 for his league best regular season record or #1592 for his collect regular season and playoff wins. Pop is the only coach in NBA history with more than 1500 wins.

The Boston Celtics retired #2 for Red Auerbach representing his two roles as head coach and executive. The Spurs could retire #5 for Pop representing his five different roles in the Spurs organization. Pop was an assistant coach for the Spurs from 1988-1992. In 1994, Pop was named general manager and vice president of basketball operations. He famously named himself head coach in 1996. And upon retirement, Pop transitioned into his current role as president of basketball operations.

The #5 also works as it is the number of Championship titles he earned as the Spurs head coach.

Speaking of, Detroit retired #2 for Chuck Daly for his two championships with the Pistons. Cade Cunnigham current wears #2, with permission from the Daly family.

The only discrepancy may be that Castle is currently wearing #5 and Pounders most likely hope to see the reigning Rookie of the Year have a long career for in the Silver & Black and retire that number for him some day.

The Spurs could go another route entirely.

Houston Rockets general manager and assistant coach Carroll Dawson has his initials retired.

A jersey with “P0P” (the “O” being a zero) might be an artistic way to go. Or simply “Coach Pop” with no number.

A final thought, “29” represents the number of seasons Gregg Popovich served as head coach of the Spurs. It represents stability, longevity, and there Spurs Way in one fell swoop.

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