SAN ANTONIO — After six years with the San Antonio Spurs, assistant coach Darius Songalia has left the team by mutual agreement.
Songalia spoke with the Lithuanian site 15 Min, citing a lack of coaching career advancement with the Spurs and wanting to find other career opportunities.
"We met at the end of the month, and it was time to change the situation because I had no more opportunities to move up," he said. "I didn't want to continue be stagnant on the second assistant's bench. The assistants who occupied the first bench of the Spurs signed four-year contracts, so I had no chance to rise in the position."
Songalia says he spoke with head coach Gregg Popovich about his frustrations with upward movement and that Popovich told him there would not be any room for him to move up the coaching ranks.
"We talked about it with Pop (Popovich) and he said I better make a change because there's no room to go up on this team."
Despite things not working out for Songalia, he says he learned plenty about coaching in San Antonio, but ultimately, he wants career advancement.
“San Antonio had become my second home. This is the first stop of my career as a coach abroad. I learned a lot in the Spurs organization, I went through all the phases," he said. "Of course, it is painful to leave this club, but I have come to the end of the line because I have been working in the same position for three years, and I did not want to be stagnant there anymore without a chance to move up."
Songalia started with the Spurs in 2018 as a quality assurance assistant in the video department. He was promoted to an assistant coach in 2020.
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