Gregg Popovich reportedly marries ex-wife of former Spurs assistant coach

A marriage license filed in Bexar County shows Gregg Popovich wed on Sept. 16 in Texas, TMZ reported on Wednesday. Popovich, 77, has run the Spurs' basketball operations since stepping away as coach in May 2025.

The bride is Mary Barth Budenholzer. Her ex-husband, Mike Budenholzer, sat on Popovich's bench from 1996 to 2013 after starting in the team's video room, a run that covered four of the franchise's five titles: 1999, 2003, 2005 and 2007. The fifth came in 2014, his first season away.

In 2015, the call telling Budenholzer he had been named NBA Coach of the Year with the Atlanta Hawks came from Popovich, and Budenholzer used his acceptance speech to credit him.

"I think I speak for myself and a ton of my colleagues; it's a long list, that I get to speak publicly and thank Pop for letting us coach with him," Budenholzer said. "It prepared me for my opportunity."

"I'm thrilled for him, obviously. He's a wonderful person, heck of a coach, and it's great that people noticed and understood what a good job he did," Popovich said at the time.

Atlanta was the first of three head coaching stops for Budenholzer, who won a title in Milwaukee during his 2018-23 tenure and spent 2024-25 in Phoenix. He went without a head-coaching job in 2025-26.