In 1988, Gregg Popovich was still coaching Division III basketball when he recruited a high school player from Arizona named Mike Budenholzer to play at Pomona College. Popovich left for the NBA before Budenholzer ever played for him, but that brief meeting turned into something much bigger than either man could have known at the time. Nearly four decades later, that first meeting has become the starting point for a story far beyond basketball.

Budenholzer eventually became one of the most important members of Popovich’s Spurs staff, spending 19 years in San Antonio and working alongside him through four NBA championships. But there was another connection to the Budenholzer family that would remain outside the basketball box score. Budenholzer’s then-wife, Mary Barth, was part of the same San Antonio world during those years.

Now, Popovich has married Mary. A Bexar County marriage license confirms that the 77-year-old former Spurs coach and Mary Barth Budenholzer were married on September 16, 2026, in Texas. And while neither Popovich nor Mary has publicly discussed the relationship, one quote from Budenholzer’s coaching career captures what Popovich meant to the man who spent 19 years working alongside him: “The thing Pop did for me and did for a lot of coaches is — he let me coach. It seems really simple, and that’s the beauty of being with Pop and being around Pop.”

That is what makes this more than a surprising wedding announcement. Popovich and Mike Budenholzer did not simply work together for a few seasons. Their connection stretches back to a small college campus in California, through the rise of one of the NBA’s most successful teams, and eventually into two separate coaching careers. Mary was there during much of that journey too.

The marriage also comes as Popovich begins a new chapter of his own. After 29 seasons as San Antonio’s head coach, he stepped away from the bench in 2025 and moved into the Spurs’ front office as president of basketball operations. The NBA later adjusted his official coaching record to 1,390 wins and 824 losses after reassigning the 77 games Mitch Johnson coached during Popovich’s absence. He remained around the organization as an adviser while Johnson led the Spurs to the 2026 NBA Finals.

But Popovich’s latest chapter is not really about the numbers. For the first time in decades, there is no daily NBA game waiting for him to solve. And somewhere during that change, his private life also took a turn that had remained almost completely out of public view.

The Spurs have offered no comment on the marriage. Popovich and Mary have not issued a public statement either, while Mike Budenholzer has not publicly addressed the wedding.

Before the wedding, there was a 38-year connection

Popovich’s personal life has rarely been the center of his basketball story. He was married to Erin Popovich for 42 years before her death on April 18, 2018. The couple had two children, Jill and Mickey, and built a life that largely stayed away from the spotlight surrounding the Spurs.

That privacy makes the public timeline surrounding Mary even more striking. There is no credible public record showing when Popovich and Mary began dating.

The story actually began before Budenholzer ever became Popovich’s assistant. In 1988, Popovich recruited the Arizona high school player to Pomona College. Popovich then left for the Spurs before Budenholzer played a college game, but Budenholzer stayed at Pomona, played four seasons and earned his degree.

Six years later, their paths crossed again in San Antonio. Popovich returned to the Spurs as general manager in 1994 and brought Budenholzer into the organization as an alternate video coordinator. For two years, Budenholzer worked in the film room before Popovich became head coach and promoted him to the full-time coaching staff in 1996.

The former college recruit was suddenly working beside the man who had recruited him.

Mary was living that Spurs life alongside him. She and Mike raised four children in San Antonio during his years with the franchise, and local reporting documented the family celebrating the team’s success during the 2013 playoffs. After San Antonio swept its playoff opponent, Mary and her children placed brooms outside their home and displayed a “Best of the West” banner.

It is a small detail from a much bigger Spurs story, but it matters here. Mary had already spent years around the same franchise, the same city and the same basketball world that shaped Popovich and Budenholzer.

Budenholzer’s time beside Popovich eventually became the launchpad for his own career. He left San Antonio in 2013 to become the Atlanta Hawks’ head coach. In 2015, he was named NBA Coach of the Year after leading Atlanta to 60 wins. Popovich even called him before the award was publicly announced to tell his former assistant the news.

Eight years after leaving San Antonio, Budenholzer was holding the Larry O’Brien Trophy himself. He led the Milwaukee Bucks to the 2021 NBA championship, adding a title of his own to the four he had helped Popovich win with the Spurs.

In 2016, Mike and Mary finalized their divorce after more than two decades of marriage. The divorce remained private, and neither publicly discussed the reason for their split.

What the public record does show is that Popovich and Mary were seen together at Spurs home games during the 2025-26 season. Those appearances gave the first documented public glimpse of a relationship that had otherwise remained private.

And that may be the most unusual part of the entire story. In an era when NBA stars, coaches and executives are followed almost everywhere, the beginning of Popovich and Mary’s relationship was never publicly laid out. No announcement. No obvious public timeline. No explanation from either of them.

Just a few public appearances, followed by a marriage license.

Mike, meanwhile, had moved into another chapter of his own life. During his 2024 introductory press conference with the Phoenix Suns, he publicly thanked his partner Lisa, calling her a “game-changer in my life.” He did not publicly comment on Popovich’s marriage to Mary.

Three lives that stayed connected to the Spurs

For nearly four decades, their lives kept crossing paths. Popovich recruited Budenholzer at Pomona, brought him into the Spurs organization years later, watched him grow from a video coordinator into a trusted assistant and eventually saw him become an NBA champion in his own right.

Mary was part of that world too. She was raising a family with Mike in San Antonio while the Spurs were building the dynasty that made Popovich a basketball icon. Then the paths changed. Mike left for Atlanta. Mary and Mike divorced. Erin Popovich died in 2018. Popovich eventually left the bench. At some point, Popovich and Mary became more than two people connected by the Spurs.

The man who once recruited Mike Budenholzer to a Division III college team eventually coached him through four NBA championships. Budenholzer left San Antonio and built a championship career of his own. Mary entered a new chapter after her 2016 divorce. Popovich entered one after Erin’s death and, years later, after leaving the Spurs bench.

Now, nearly four decades after Popovich first met Budenholzer, the three lives are connected by one final chapter.

Popovich and Mary Barth Budenholzer are married. How their relationship began remains private. The basketball history that came before it, however, is anything but.