San Antonio Spurs:
Spurs make a Berry good pickup

The history of the San Antonio Spurs was massively altered by the random bouncing of ping-pong balls before the 1986 NBA Draft. The Spurs had just come off of their worst season in franchise history going 28-54 that year. The one player that had been holding them up in respectability, George “Iceman” Gervin, was traded away before the season started and the franchise was in limbo. After the season the Spurs crossed their fingers that they could strike gold in the NBA Lottery. The team did just that and didn’t hesitate to go after Navy’s 7’1” center David Robinson. Robinson was obligated to spend two years in service and despite that the Spurs still wanted to draft him. Upon his return Robinson could’ve gone to any other team that he wanted since his two year rookie contract was up. He was actually very close to becoming a Laker but in the end he decided to go to the team that drafted him. In Robinson’s first season the Spurs had a record turnaround by winning 35 more games than they did the year before and the Spurs won their first Midwest Divisional championship since 1983. The Spurs would then become one of the elite teams in the NBA for the seven years, until Robinson hurt his lower back during the 1996-’97 season and he missed all but six games. That’s when the gods of the NBA Lottery smiled upon the Spurs once again. Despite statistically only having the third best chance to get the number one overall pick the Spurs did the improbable and landed the number one pick. That year the undisputed number one pick was Wake Forest’s center Tim Duncan. Duncan came into the league and put on a clinic on how to be fundamentally sound in the NBA. Duncan averaged 21.1 points, 11.9 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game in his rookie season which not only got him the Rookie of the Year honors but also fetched him second team All-Defense team and first team All-NBA honors. Duncan also finished fifth in the MVP voting because he was a huge reason that the Spurs broke their old record of biggest turnaround in a single season by winning 36 more games than they did the year before.

It was in Duncan’s second season that everything culminated into the ultimate prize in the 1999 lockout shortened season. The Spurs stormed through the league and it didn’t stop in the playoffs. The Spurs only lost two games in all four playoff series. In the Finals Duncan was named the MVP for the 27.4 points, 14.0 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 2.2 blocks he averaged against the overmatched New York Knicks. The next year marked the first of the three-peat of the Los Angeles Lakers. It wasn’t until the 2003 playoffs that the Spurs got the best of the Lakers in the playoffs. The Spurs soundly beat them on the way to a 4-2 series victory and then disposed of the Dallas Mavericks in the next round to meet up with the New Jersey Nets in the NBA Finals. This was a special Finals because David Robinson had already let the world know that it was the last season he would ever play in. The Nets just couldn’t keep up with the Spurs front court combo of Robinson and Duncan and the Spurs won another series 4-2. Duncan was named MVP again after registering 21 points, 20 rebounds, 10 assists and eight blocks in the series clinching game. The big story was David Robinson winning his final game at home and going out like John Elway did, on top of the league.

Last season was the first season the Spurs didn’t have The Admiral to lean on anymore. The Spurs had another very strong season and finished second in the Midwest and grabbed the number three seed in the West. In the first round of the playoffs the Spurs had no problem eliminating the Memphis Grizzlies 4-0. In the second round the Spurs went head to head with the only other team to win a championship in the five years prior, the Los Angeles Lakers. In the first two games the Spurs manhandled the superstar Lakers. In the next two games the Lakers won on their home floor and brought it back to San Antonio all knotted up at two games a piece. The game was back and fourth all night and it appeared to be all but over when Duncan hit a jumper falling to the ground over Shaquille O’Neal with 0.4 second left on the clock. On the ensuing inbound play Derek Fisher caught the ball turned and shot and made the fall away jumper to end the game. It was one of the greatest finishes in NBA history and that was the shot that won the series. The Lakers went back to LA and won the final game and ended the Spurs season.
In the off-season the Spurs made a couple of moves. None of them were huge but the moves they made were very deliberate and will make the team better than they were last year. The Spurs let Hedo Turkoglu go and brought in Brent Barry. The Spurs pick up of Barry is the most underrated move of the off-season. Barry will bring a dimension or two that the Spurs were missing during the playoffs and most of the regular season.

In the draft the Spurs badly needed to add some depth to their guards. With the number 28 pick the Spurs drafted the Slovenian point guard Beno Udrih to back up Tony Parker. With their second round pick the Spurs got Xavier All-American Honorable Mention guard Romain Sato. The Spurs also drafted Russian center Sergei Karaulov who will more than likely stay overseas to develop a little bit more.

The Spurs starting lineup is one that is built with two ideas in mind, defense and getting the ball to Tim Duncan. The starting point guard is Tony Parker, at shooting guard is Manu Ginobilli, at small forward is defensive specialist Bruce Bowen, at power forward is the two time MVP Tim Duncan, and at center is Rasho Nesterovic. There are a few things that set the Spurs apart from the rest of the NBA, their team defense and Duncan, anytime you can have a guy that won two consecutive MVP awards it’s a very good thing.

The Spurs bench is another thing that sets them apart from the rest of the NBA. Again there aren’t any former All-stars on the Spurs bench but they all do exactly what they have to do when they are called on. Backing up the guards will be the rookie Beno Udrih and the sharpshooter Brent Barry. Backing up the big men will be Tony Massenburg, Robert Horry and Malik Rose. This will be one of the things that lead the Spurs into the postseason once again.

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