Gregg Popovich is married again, and the longtime Spurs figure’s new wife comes from a familiar corner of his basketball world.
According to TMZ Sports, Popovich has tied the knot with Mary Barth Budenholzer, the former wife of Mike Budenholzer, who spent years as one of Popovich’s assistants in San Antonio. The report says the couple exchanged wedding rings on September 16 in Texas, with the marriage license filed in Bexar County.
Popovich, 77, has long been one of the defining figures in Spurs history, and the news adds a personal twist to a circle that already runs deep through the organization. Mary Barth Budenholzer is identified in the report as someone who worked very closely with Coach Pop to win 5 NBA Championship rings for the Spurs.
The marriage comes after a long stretch in which Popovich was a widower. He was married to his first wife, Erin, from 1976 until 2018, and she died in April of 2018.
Mike Budenholzer, now 57, served as a Spurs assistant from 1996 through 2013 and was part of four different NBA championship teams in San Antonio. He later moved on to head coaching jobs with the Atlanta Hawks from 2013-18 and the Bucks from 2018-23, where he won a championship in Milwaukee.
Budenholzer, a two-time NBA Coach of the Year, last worked as a head coach in Phoenix from 2024-25. He and Mary Barth divorced a decade ago.
Popovich’s own run in San Antonio stretched from 1996 until 2025. A five-time NBA champion coach and Hall of Famer, he officially retired in May of 2025 and shifted into a new role as president of basketball operations.
Mitch Johnson took over as head coach of the Spurs and led the team to an NBA Finals appearance last June.
In Other News...
Kenny Atkinson Is Challenging The Cavs In One Crucial Way
The Cavaliers have taken their preseason work overseas, using training camp in Malaga, Spain, as more than just a chance to get shots up and legs under them. Kenny Atkinson has framed the trip as a test of adaptation, with the staff leaning into team bonding, scrimmaging, conditioning and mental drills as Cleveland tries to build a sharper foundation before the season begins. Peyton Watson and the rest of the group are getting a very different kind of camp than the usual routine back home.
What makes the setup notable is the emphasis on the part of the game that can be easy to overlook in October: how a team responds when the environment changes and the work gets uncomfortable. Atkinson has made mental performance a priority in Malaga, and the Cavaliers are trying to turn that into camaraderie and resilience as they prepare for what comes next. The real question is how much of that edge carries over once the trip ends and the games start to count. [Read more 🡒]
James Harden Just Added An Unexpected Twist To Clevelands Future
During the Cavaliers training camp in Spain, James Harden gave a glimpse of how he sees the later stages of his career, saying he has interest in eventually playing basketball in Europe or Spain. It was an interesting note to surface while Cleveland was working overseas, especially coming from a player who only recently committed to the team on a three-year contract and appears locked in on the present.
For now, the message is less about departure than possibility. Harden did not offer a timeline or suggest anything is imminent, but the idea of a future overseas stint adds a different layer to his Cleveland tenure and gives the Cavs something else to think about as they move through camp abroad. [Read more 🡒]
Donovan Mitchell Just Added Real Heat To Cavaliers Opening Night
Donovan Mitchell has become the face of Clevelands next chapter, and now he has already put a sharper edge on opening night. After LeBron James chose to sign a two-year contract with the Philadelphia 76ers instead of returning to Cleveland, Mitchell referred to him as the enemy, a comment that instantly gave the Cavaliers season opener a little extra bite.
Mitchell was brought in before the 2022-23 season and has since locked in his long-term future with a four-year, $273 million extension, so this is very much his team now. Cleveland will open the season with Mitchell in the lineup against James 76ers, a matchup that already carries the kind of storyline the NBA likes to package and fans in Cleveland will not need much convincing to circle on the calendar. [Read more 🡒]