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According to a recent report from ESPN's Shams Charania, there is no expectation for Spurs Hall of Fame coach Gregg Popovich to return to the bench this season. Popovich's long-term status with the team also remains unclear at this time.

Popovich has been out since Nov. 2 when he

suffered a mild stroke before a game

. The hope and expectation had been that he could return to coaching this season, but that dream appears dead, and there are now questions about whether he will return to the bench at all. Here is what Popovich said in the one statement he has released since his stroke.

No one is more excited to see me return to the bench than the talented individuals who have been leading my rehabilitation process. They've quickly learned that I'm less than coachable.

The hope had always been that Popovich could step away on his own terms, but that future is cloudy now.

Assistant coach Mitch Johnson was bumped up to head coach on an interim basis and the team is 22-27 under his tutelage but is fading from the play-in race (they are 12th in the West, three games out of the last play-in spot). That ground will be almost impossible to make up because the Spurs are

without Victor Wembanyama for the remainder of the season

due to deep vein thrombosis in his right shoulder.

Popovich, 76, is the NBA's all-time winningest coach, with 1,390 regular-season victories and 170 in the playoffs. He is a five-time NBA champion and coached Team USA to an Olympic gold medal in Tokyo.