LAS VEGAS (AP) — Victor Wembanyama missed 12 of San Antonio's first 25 games this season. Dylan Harper has missed 10 already for the Spurs, while Stephon Castle has been out for nine and De'Aaron Fox couldn't play in eight.
That's a lot of injuries.
And the Spurs are 18-7.
Dealing with adversity has been an every-single-day chore for Mitch Johnson since he inherited his job as coach of the Spurs, a move that came unexpectedly when NBA all-time wins leader and franchise patriarch Gregg Popovich had a stroke in November 2024. He wasn't planning to become a head coach on that Saturday afternoon when Popovich was stricken, and the job he did was more than admirable to finish out the season.
Now? The Spurs look like they could be contenders for the first time in about a decade. Johnson — despite all the injury issues — has seemed unflappable, guiding San Antonio to a spot in the NBA Cup championship game against New York and getting the team off to a start that suggests its first playoff appearance since 2019 may be awaiting this spring.
“I trust in Mitch 100%,” Spurs guard Devin Vassell said. “Mitch was my player development coach when I first got here, so I think me and him have an even better connection than the outside sees. But we all trust him. He’s the brains of all of this. He helps us with everything ... and we’re just going to keep relying on him. He's our head coach and we trust in him.”
There's a cliche in sports, and it's a cliche for a reason: Never follow a legend.
Johnson didn't have much of a choice.
He won his first game on the night when Popovich had the stroke, continued holding the fort even after Wembanyama was shut down at the All-Star break when deep vein thrombosis was found in one of his shoulders. Johnson finished 32-45 last season, doomed at the end by a 3-9 stretch over the final 12 games.
This year, San Antonio is off to its best start since 2016-17. That was a team that went to the Western Conference finals led by Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge, still had Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili contributing, and Popovich added 61 coaching wins to his collection.
“I’m not Pop,” Johnson said, “so I can’t lead how he did.”
Popovich's ways were the right ways; the record total of 1,390 wins more than proves that much. But it doesn't mean Popovich's ways are the only ways; case in point, the way the Spurs closed out their Cup semifinal win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday night. Popovich staunchly opposed fouling in the final moments with three-point leads, and Johnson had the Spurs do it on three separate occasions down the stretch of their 111-109 win.
The Spurs' Way is still The Spurs' Way. Johnson is just making mild little tweaks here and there.
“I think our franchise is used to and committed to winning, and that’s not a knock to any other franchises, but some people that have been with our franchise for a very long time have set a foundation and embedded principles that has allowed that to happen over time,” Johnson said. “I think when we have not been winning as recently, a lot of those principles and ways we operate have not changed or wavered. We just needed to continue to grow with this group.”
He just needed some time to grow as well. It's not easy to follow Popovich, not easy to coach a global superstar like Wembanyama, not easy to try and find the best recipe for having veterans and young guys mesh together.
Somehow, Johnson has made it all seem like no big deal. The NBA Cup final was an obvious step in the right direction, and the Spurs seem to have a ton of confidence after getting off to this kind of flying start.
“He’s always been very hardworking, high character, good person, very steady emotionally," said Thunder coach Mark Daigneault, who has known Johnson since they were coming up together as coaches in the G League. "He doesn’t get up and down. And he's really worked his way through that organization to get to this point. He's done a great job, even last season in a tough circumstance, and then this season with a full training camp. So, I’ve got a lot of respect for Mitch and a lot of respect for the work he’s doing right now.”
Around The NBA analyzes the biggest topics in the NBA during the season.
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba
San Antonio Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson calls to his team in the second half of an NBA Cup semifinals basketball game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ronda Churchill)
San Antonio Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson directs players during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Orlando Magic, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A mass shooting in which 15 people were killed during a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach was “a terrorist attack inspired by Islamic State,” Australia’s federal police commissioner Krissy Barrett said Tuesday.
The suspects were a father and son, aged 50 and 24, authorities have said. The older man, whom state officials named as Sajid Akram, was shot dead. His son was being treated at a hospital.
A news conference by political and law enforcement leaders on Tuesday was the first time officials confirmed their beliefs about the suspects' ideologies. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the remarks were based on evidence obtained, including “the presence of Islamic State flags in the vehicle that has been seized.”
There are 25 people still being treated in hospitals after Sunday’s massacre, 10 of them in critical condition. Three of them are patients in a children's hospital.
Also among them is Ahmed al Ahmed, who was captured on video tackling and disarming one assailant, before pointing the man’s weapon at him and then setting it on the ground.
Those killed ranged in age from 10 to 87 years old. They were attending a Hanukkah event at Australia's most famous beach Sunday when the gunshots rang out.
Albanese and the leaders of some of Australia's states have pledged to tighten the country's already strict gun laws in what would be the most sweeping reforms since a shooter killed 35 people in Port Arthur, Tasmania, in 1996. Mass shootings in Australia have since been rare.
Officials divulged more information as public questions and anger grew on the third day following the attack about how the suspects were able to plan and enact it and whether Australian Jews had been sufficiently protected from rising antisemitism.
Albanese announced plans to further restrict access to guns, in part because it emerged the older suspect had amassed his cache of six weapons legally.
“The suspected murderers, callous in how they allegedly coordinated their attack, appeared to have no regard for the age or ableness of their victims,” said Barrett. “It appears the alleged killers were interested only in a quest for a death tally.”
The suspects traveled to the Philippines last month, said Mal Lanyon, the Police Commissioner for New South Wales state. Their reasons for the trip and where in the Philippines they went would be probed by investigators, Lanyon said.
He also confirmed that a vehicle removed from the scene, registered to the younger suspect, contained improvised explosive devices.
“I also confirm that it contained two homemade ISIS flags,” Lanyon said.
The Philippines Bureau of Immigration confirmed Tuesday that Sajid Akram traveled to the country from Nov. 1 to Nov. 28 along with Naveed Akram, 24, giving the city of Davao as their final destination. Australian authorities have not named the younger suspect.
Groups of Muslim separatist militants, including Abu Sayyaf in the southern Philippines, once expressed support for the Islamic State group and have hosted small numbers of foreign militant combatants from Asia, the Middle East and Europe in the past.
Decades of military offensives, however, have considerably weakened Abu Sayyaf and other such armed groups, and Philippine military and police officials say there has been no recent indication of any foreign militants in the country’s south.
Earlier, Albanese visited al Ahmed in a hospital. Albanese said the 42-year-old Syrian-born fruit shop owner had further surgery scheduled on Wednesday for shotgun wounds to his left shoulder and upper body.
“It was a great honor to met Ahmed al Ahmed. He is a true Australian hero,” Albanese told reporters after a 30-minute meeting with him and his parents.
“We are a brave country. Ahmed al Ahmed represents the best of our country. We will not allow this country to be divided. That is what the terrorists seek. We will unite. We will embrace each other, and we’ll get through this,” Albanese added.
The famous blue-shirted lifeguards of Bondi Beach attracted praise as more stories of their actions during the shooting emerged.
One duty lifeguard, identified by the organization’s Instagram account as Rory Davey, performed an ocean rescue during the shooting after people fled, fully clothed, into the sea.
Another lifeguard, Jackson Doolan, posted to his social media a photo taken as he sprinted, barefoot and clutching a first aid kit, from Tamarama beach a mile away toward Bondi as the massacre continued.
“These guys are community members and it’s not about the surf,” Anthony Caroll, one of the stars of a popular reality television show called “Bondi Rescue,” told Sky News on Tuesday. “They heard the gunshots and they left the beach and came right up the back here into the scene of the crime, into harm’s way while those bullets were being shot.”
Israeli Ambassador to Australia Amir Maimon visited the scene of the carnage on Tuesday and was welcomed by Jewish leaders.
“I’m not sure that my vocabulary is rich enough to express how I feel. My heart is torn apart because the Jewish community, the Australians of Jewish faith, the Jewish community is also my community,” Maimon said.
Thousands have visited Bondi from all walks of life since the tragedy to pay their respects and lay flowers on a mounting pile at an impromptu memorial site.
One of the visitors on Tuesday was former Prime Minister John Howard, who was responsible the the 1996 overhaul of gun laws and an associated buyback of newly outlawed weapons.
In the aftermath of Sunday's shooting, a record number of Australians signed up to donate blood. On Monday alone close to 50,000 appointments were booked, more than double the previous record, the national donation organization Lifeblood told The Associated Press.
Almost 1,300 people signed up to donate for the first time. Such was the enthusiasm at Lifeblood’s Bondi location that appointments to give blood were unavailable before Dec. 31, according to the organization’s website.
A total of 7,810 donations of blood, plasma and platelets were made across the country on Monday, spokesperson Cath Stone said. Australian news outlets reported queues of up to four hours at some Sydney donation sites.
Graham-McLay reported from Wellington, New Zealand.
People offer flowers and hugs at a floral memorial during a tribute for victims of Sunday's shooting at the Bondi Pavilion at Bondi Beach on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, in Sydney, Australia. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
British Consul General Louise Cantillon, arrives at a memorial with flowers and a wreath during a tribute for victims of Sunday's shooting at the Bondi Pavilion at Bondi Beach on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, in Sydney, Australia. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
In this photo released by the Prime Minister office, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese meets Ahmed al Ahmed at St George Hospital in Sydney, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025. (Australian Prime Minister Office via AP)
Former PM John Howard waves during a flower memorial for victims of Sunday's shooting at the Bondi Pavilion at Bondi Beach on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, in Sydney, Australia. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
Rabbi Yossi Friedman speaks to people gathering at a flower memorial by the Bondi Pavilion at Bondi Beach on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, following Sunday's shooting in Sydney, Australia. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
