USA Basketball names Gregg Popovich head coach for 2017-2020

The United States men's national basketball team has found its next head coach, and he's about as decorated as they come.

USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo announced Friday that San Antonio Spurs coach and five-time NBA champion Gregg Popovich will take over for Mike Krzyzewski as head of the program in 2017, and continue in that role through 2020. Krzyzewski, after coaching the U.S. at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, will move into an advisory role.

"I'm extremely humbled and honored to have the opportunity to represent our country as the coach of the USA National Team," said the three-time NBA Coach of the Year in a statement. "What the program has accomplished over the last decade under the leadership of Jerry Colangelo and Mike Krzyzewski is truly impressive. I will do my utmost to maintain the high standards of success, class, and character established by Jerry, Coach K, and the many players who have sacrificed their time on behalf of USA Basketball."

Said Colangelo: "I'm absolutely delighted to announce Gregg Popovich as head coach of the USA Basketball Men's National Team for 2017-20. There is no doubt in my mind that we have the great fortune of bringing on board one of the NBA's best and most successful coaches ever to lead the USA National Team for the 2017-20 quadrennium. By making this decision now, it will allow us to have a clean, efficient, and immediate transition following the 2016 Olympic Games."

Popovich's 2017-20 tenure could include him coaching at the 2019 FIBA World Cup in China and the 2020 Summer Olympics in Japan, as well as team training camps each summer.

Kevin Durant was notified of Popovich's hire Friday and was happy. "That'll be tight," the Oklahoma City Thunder star said. "Hopefully I can play past next summer."

The qualifying window for the 2019 World Cup will come during the 2017-18 NBA regular season, but ESPN's Marc Stein reports that neither Popovich nor USA's players will leave their teams mid-season for qualifying. It's been suggested that the program could use D-League players for the qualifiers, which will take place in either November 2017 or February 2018.

Popovich was expected, at one point in time, to follow longtime Spurs cornerstone Tim Duncan into retirement. But he said after the Spurs locked up LaMarcus Aldridge this offseason that he'd continue to coach through Aldridge's four-year contract with the club.