SAN ANTONIO -- The San Antonio Spurs' Sunday started in Charlotte, North Carolina, followed by a detour in Atlanta because of an equipment issue on the team's charter plane.
But by the end the night, Spurs coach Mitch Johnson had reached a new destination in his career. With his team's 112-103 win over the Orlando Magic, Johnson earned the right to represent the Western Conference as a head coach in the 2026 NBA All-Star Game on Feb. 15 in Inglewood, Calif.
"It would be an honor and humbling to be able to be a part of All-Star Weekend with the best players in this league," Johnson said. "The league always does a great job of putting a great weekend on. It's an example of and a reflection of the work that these guys have put in."
Detroit's J.B. Bickerstaff will coach one of the three All-Star teams under the new "U.S. vs. the World" format -- he earned that because the Pistons are atop the East -- and Johnson will coach another. Oklahoma City's Mark Daigneault coaches the team with the West's best record, but he cannot coach the All-Star Game this year because he coached at the event last season.
That left Johnson and the Nuggets' David Adelman vying for the spot and it came down to Sunday before it was decided, when the Spurs (33-16) beat Orlando and Oklahoma City topped Denver (33-17).
The NBA has not revealed how the coach of the third All-Star team will be decided.
Johnson reached the milestone on the heels of a topsy-turvy day that started on the road at 6 a.m. ET in Charlotte, after the team spent the night there snowed in after a loss Saturday to the Hornets. The Spurs were originally scheduled to fly home immediately after Saturday's game, but a reported 11 inches of snow fell at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, grounding more than 1,000 flights and causing the NBA to delay the start of Sunday's Magic-Spurs game from 3 p.m. CT to 6 p.m.
Once the weather cleared up enough for the Spurs to take off for San Antonio, not even an hour into the trip, a pilot announced the flight needed to be diverted to Atlanta due to a mechanical issue. So, the NBA delayed tipoff another two hours.
The Spurs landed at San Antonio International Airport nearly 4 hours before tipoff.
"It was a little scary," said forward Keldon Johnson. "They came on the intercom and said we were losing cabin pressure. We had to emergency land. Our pilot took care of us. After that, the mood kind of lightened up and went back to joking. It was scary."
Mitch Johnson, who is in his first full season coaching the Spurs, becomes the second All-Star Game head coach in franchise history and the first since Hall of Famer Gregg Popovich in 2016.
San Antonio's 33-16 record ranks as the franchise's best record through 49 games since the 2016-17 season.
Along the way, Johnson has helped the Spurs capture the third-most clutch wins in the NBA (17) as the team logged an offensive rating of 124.8 in clutch situations.
"I'm so happy for him," Spurs big man and All-Star starter Victor Wembanyama said after logging his 23rd game with at least 25 points and 5 blocks. "I don't know how many [coaches] have done this in their first season or first-and-a-half."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
