In the wake of his wife’s death Wednesday, Gregg Popovich will not coach the San Antonio Spurs in Game 3 of their Western Conference playoff series Thursday night against the Golden State Warriors. The team has announced that assistant Ettore Messina will coach the team.
After a long career as a head coach in Europe, where he won four EuroLeague championships, the Italian-born Messina was a consultant for the Los Angeles Lakers in 2011-12 before joining Popovich’s staff in 2014. He served as the team’s fill-in head coach for two regular season games in March 2016 while Popovich was dealing with a family medical emergency, losing the first game to the Indiana Pacers but beating the Minnesota Timberwolves in the second.