Legendary San Antonio Spurs basketball coach Gregg Popovich was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Saturday night. He had a connection to Aledo with late science teacher and basketball coach R. Craig Kelley. The two were childhood friends, growing up in Gary, Indiana. Popovich, well before his NBA coaching days, worked an Aledo basketball camp in 1975. The camp brochure even left a “g” off his first name. Kelley would relay the story to WRMJ a few years prior to his death.
Kelley and Popovich had a lifelong friendship and in 2014 Popovich presented Kelley with a San Antonio Spurs NBA championship ring. Kelley passed away in February of 2016.