San Antonio Spurs

The San Antonio Spurs are a National Basketball Association team based in San Antonio, Texas.

The '90s and a title

The Spurs began the 1990s with great optimism. The team became a perennial playoff presence although were never able to advance further then the second round of the NBA Playoffs under Brown's tutelage. Late in the 1991-1992 season, McCombs fired Brown and replaced him with Bob Bass who finished the season as interim head coach. McCombs made national headlines during the summer of 1992 with the hiring of former UNLV head coach Jerry Tarkanian. The Tarkanian experiment proved a flop, as the coach was fired 20 games into the 1992-1993 season with the Spurs record at 9-11. After Rex Hughes filled the coaching shoes for one game, NBA veteran John Lucas was named head coach. It was Lucas's first NBA coaching assignment although he had gained recognition in league circles for his success in helping NBA players rehab from drug abuse.

Related Topics:
1990s - 1991 - 1992 - Bob Bass - UNLV - Jerry Tarkanian - 1993 - Rex Hughes - John Lucas

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The Lucas era started out successfully. His coaching propelled the team to a 39-22 finish over the rest of the regular season and the team reached the Western Conference semifinals, losing to the Phoenix Suns. The 1992-1993 season also marked the last that the Spurs would play in Hemisfair Arena. In 1993 local businessman Peter M. Holt and a group of 22 investors purchased the Spurs from Red McCombs for $75 million.

Related Topics:
Phoenix Suns - Peter M. Holt

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The following season, the Spurs first in the newly built Alamodome, Lucas led the Spurs to a 55-27 record but the team suffered a loss in the first round of the playoffs to the Utah Jazz which led to the immediate firing of Lucas as head coach. Prior to the season the Spurs traded fan-favorite Elliott to the Detroit Pistons in return for rebounding star Dennis Rodman.

Related Topics:
Alamodome - Utah Jazz - Detroit Pistons - Dennis Rodman

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Lucas was replaced by former Pacers coach Bob Hill for the 1994-1995 season which would turn out to be the Spurs' most successful season to date. Elliott returned to the team after an uneventful season with the Pistons and the team finished with the best record at 62-20 while David Robinson was named the NBA's Most Valuable Player. The Spurs reached the Western Conference Finals, but lost to the eventual NBA Champion Houston Rockets. Throughout the season and particularly in the playoffs there appeared to be friction developing between Rodman and several Spurs' teammates, most notably Robinson, and Rodman was traded after the season to the Chicago Bulls.

Related Topics:
Bob Hill - 1994 - 1995 - Houston Rockets - Chicago Bulls

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The Spurs finished the next season (1995-1996) under Hill at 59-23 and lost in the Western Conference Semifinals to the Jazz. Few observers could have predicted how far the Spurs would fall during the 1996-1997 season. After an injury that limited Robinson to six games during the season, the Spurs wound up with a 20-62 record, the worst in franchise history. Hill only lasted 18 games that season, eventually being replaced by Gregg Popovich, who had once been an assistant for the Spurs during Larry Brown's coaching turn.

Related Topics:
1996 - 1997 - Gregg Popovich

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Although the 1996-1997 season was not successful on the court for the Spurs, the offseason proved to be the opposite. With the third-worst record in the league, the Spurs won the NBA's draft lottery which gave them the top pick in the 1997 draft. The Spurs used their pick to select Wake Forest University product and consensus All-American Tim Duncan.

Related Topics:
Wake Forest University - Tim Duncan

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Duncan quickly emerged as a force in the NBA during the 1997-1998 season, averaging 21.1 points and 11.9 rebounds per game as a power forward. He was named First Team All-NBA while winning Rookie of the Year honors. The team ended up at 56-26 but once again lost to the Jazz in the Western Conference semifinals. While both Duncan and Robinson played low-post roles, the two seamlessly meshed on the court.

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With a healthy Robinson and Duncan and the additions of playoff veterans such as Mario Elie and Jerome Kersey, the Spurs looked forward to the 1998-1999 season. Prior to the beginning of training camps however, the NBA owners led by commissioner David Stern locked out the players in order to force a new collective bargaining agreement with the NBA Players Association (NBAPA). The season was delayed over three months until resolution on a new labor agreement was reached in January 1999.

Related Topics:
Mario Elie - Jerome Kersey - 1999 - David Stern - Locked out - Collective bargaining agreement - NBA Players Association

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Playing a shortened 50-game season, the Spurs ended up with a 37-13 record. The team was just as dominant in the playoffs, rolling through the Western Conference with a record of 11-1. They faced the New York Knicks in the NBA Finals and, on June 25, 1999, won the series and the franchise's first NBA World Championship in Game 5 (final score: 78-77) on the Knicks' home court of Madison Square Garden. Duncan was named the Finals MVP. The victory by the Spurs was not only the first NBA title to be won by a former ABA team, but also was the first Finals appearance by a team from the ABA.

Related Topics:
New York Knicks - NBA Finals - Madison Square Garden

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The Spurs were not able to capitalize on their success during the 1999-2000 season. Although they finished with an overall record of 53-29, the Spurs lost in the first round to the Suns primarily due to an injury to Duncan which kept him out of the playoff series. The longterm viability of the Spurs franchise in San Antonio was however achieved during the 1999-2000 season, as Bexar County voters approved increases on car rental and hotel taxes which would allow for the construction of a new arena to be constructed near Freeman Coliseum.

Related Topics:
2000 - Bexar County - Freeman Coliseum

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