Mike Budenholzer is a former professional basketball player and currently an assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association.

A native of Holbrook, Arizona, Budenholzer attended Pomona College, where he was a four-year letterman in basketball and golf and was named the Outstanding Senior Athlete in 1993. In the same year, he received his bachelor’s degree in politics, philosophy and economics. Subsequently, he spent the 1993–94 season in Denmark, playing professionally for Vejle Basketball Klub, where he averaged a team-high 27.5 points per game. At the same time, he also served as head coach for two teams of the club's system.

At the start of the 1994–95 season, Budenholzer was hired by the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association as a video coordinator. He held that position for two years, before being named an assistant coach at the beginning of the 1996–97 campaign. Since the 2007–08 season, Budenholzer has been the team's number one assistant.

Gregg Popovich (born January 28, 1949) is an American basketball coach, and is currently the head coach of the National Basketball Association's San Antonio Spurs. Taking over as coach of the Spurs in 1996, Popovich is the longest tenured coach in both the NBA and all Big Four sports leagues. He is often referred to as "Coach Pop" or simply "Pop." He has won four championships as head coach of the Spurs.

Popovich was born in East Chicago, Indiana to a Serbian father and mother of Croatian descent.. He attended Merrillville High School and graduated in 1970 from the United States Air Force Academy. He played basketball for four seasons at the Academy, and in his senior year was the team captain and the leading scorer. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in Soviet Studies, and he underwent Air Force intelligence gathering and processing training. At one point, Popovich considered a career with the Central Intelligence Agency.

Popovich served five years of required active duty in the United States Air Force, during which he toured Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union with the U.S. Armed Forces Basketball Team. In 1972, he was selected as captain of the Armed Forces Team, which won the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) championship. This earned him an invitation to the 1972 U.S. Olympic Basketball Team trials.