The Greatest Dynasty That NO ONE Talks About

The Greatest Dynasty That NO ONE Talks About

until 2025 they held the record for the best win percentage in NBA history Their coach Greg Papovich is the winningest coach of all time
Coach Papovich is not the Spurs He’s the NBA
From 1997 when they’ve drafted the best power forward ever you
hear a lot of other people say Tim Duncan is the greatest power forward to ever play a game I agree with that
To 2017 the San Antonio Spurs won 50 plus games in 17 consecutive non-lockout seasons
And they never beat themselves and that is exhausting for the other team For 20 years the Spurs were a synonym for excellence discipline teamwork unselfishness and finding great players in the draft
We used to call it the program
But how did the Spurs maintain that level of success for that long This is the story of the Spurs way and how one small market team became the longest tenure dynasty in NBA history The Spurs were founded in Dallas in 1967 and were named the Chapels competing in the ABA In 1973 the franchise relocated to San Antonio and was renamed the Spurs Three years later they were one of four ABA franchises that joined the NBA when the leagues merged But unlike the Pacers and the Nets who struggled for years after joining the NBA the Spurs hit the ground running qualifying for the playoffs in seven consecutive seasons Led by the Iceman George Gervin the Spurs made three conference finals in that span with Gervin winning four scoring titles However when Gervin and center artist Gilmore got older and left the team San Antonio missed the playoffs for just the second time in franchise history But in return they won the ultimate prize for all losing teams the number one draft pick in the 1987 draft The San Antonio Spurs select David Robinson from Navy
And after serving two years in the Navy the Admiral finally arrived and immediately transformed the franchise The Spurs won 56 games in 1990 which was 35 wins more than the previous year and set the record for the biggest turnaround in NBA history With Robinson Terry Cummings and Shawn Elliot San Antonio became a perennial contender But they could never get over the hump and make the finals The Admiral was winning all individual awards But even with the addition of Dennis Rodman the furthest the Spurs went was the conference finals in 1995 when they got destroyed by Hakee and the Rockets I mean I don’t even know how I can say it with a straight face but I thought it most of the time I defended him pretty well The man just played I mean as well as I’ve seen anybody play in a long time
But then in the 199697 season everything changed due to the season ending injuries to Robinson and Chuck Pson the best shooter on the team The Spurs lost 15 out of their first 18 games After which coach Bob Hill was fired In his place came a littleknown guy named Greg Papovich I’m honored to have the opportunity to accept this challenge and and work with the Spurs and the only guarantee I’ll make is that I’ll work with every fiber of my body to make the situation more successful than it already is
Who had previously worked as a general manager of the team and had no head coaching experience at the highest level The Spurs finished the season with just 20 wins but it was a blessing in disguise because they got lucky once again winning the draft lottery for the second time The coach pop knew all along who he wanted to select with the first pick But before he made the final decision he did something extremely unusual Flying over to the US Virgin Islands to meet the best collegiate player in the country Over the next 3 days a 21-year-old big man and a 48-year-old coach spent the entire time on the beach talking about life family priorities almost everything except basketball But when he returned to San Antonio Papovic knew that Timothy Theodore Duncan was the right man for his franchise The San Antonio Spurs select Tim Duncan from Wake Forest University
Uh so it really strengthens us rebounding wise shot blocking uh overall defense obviously and and he also can score Uh so it brings back another scoreer on the on the court So it makes us a a pretty dangerous club because we can attack from a lot of angles In the 1998 season Duncan immediately proved that Pop chose correctly averaging 21 points 12 rebounds and 2.5 blocks on 55% shooting The Spurs won 36 games more than the year before which broke their own record for the biggest single season turnaround in NBA history Timmy won rookie of the year made first team allNBA and finished fifth in voting for MVP and deep And to say that he had a dominant rookie season would be an understatement But after they defeated the Suns the Spurs lost in the second round of the playoffs to a much deeper Jazz team Pop then realized that his team was strong under the basket but lacked shooting So for the 99 season he added veteran marksman Mario Ellie and Steve Kerr With Ellie and Curr Duncan and Robinson had reliable targets to kick the ball out after a double team And because the Twin Towers averaged a combined five blocks per game the Spurs were impenetrable inside the paint leading the NBA in defensive rating In a lockout shortened season San Antonio led the NBA with a 37-13 record and was even more dominant in the playoffs The Spurs lost just one game in three playoff series finally reaching their first NBA finals In the championship round they played the New York Knicks who barely made the playoffs and became the first eighth seed to reach the finals To make things even worse the Knicks lost Patrick Euing due to an Achilles injury And without their best player New York had zero chance against the postup powerhouse that was Tim Duncan Timmy averaged 27 points and 14 rebounds on 54% shooting And he and the Spurs defense limited the Knicks to just 79 points per game winning the series 4-1 Duncan was the finals MVP And after the series Coach Pop tried to console the losing coach Jeff Van Gundy I’ve got Tim and you don’t That’s the difference In the 2000 season Duncan and Robinson were named to both the All-Star and AllNBA teams But after Timmy suffered a knee injury late in the season the Spurs couldn’t cope with the Suns losing in the first round in the playoffs In 2001 the Spurs once again dominated in the regular season with the best record best defense and with Duncan finishing second in MVP voting behind Allen Iverson and third in voting for defensive player of the year In the first two playoff rounds the Spurs easily defeated Minnesota and Dallas But in the conference finals they had no answer for Shaq and Kobe as the Lakers swept the series With the retirement of small forward Shawn Elliot who spent 11 seasons with the franchise the looming retirement of David Robinson and the overall old age of the team Papovic realized he needed to inject new blood into the team and surround Timmy with younger players Enter Tony Parker The skinny French point guard was a complete unknown for the majority of the NBA and everyone was in shock when the Spurs selected him with the 28th overall pick
The San Antonio Spurs select Tony Parker of Racing Club Paris
Back then the rest of the league thought European players were soft and unfit for the NBA But the Spurs thought differently putting more value on fundamentals and basketball IQ that European players honed since they were kids Now the Spurs owner Peter Holt wasn’t a poor man but he wasn’t rich either At least when you compared him to other billionaire owners like the NBA version of Moneyball Holt Papovic and assistant general manager RC Buford had to think outside the box to find quality players cuz they didn’t want to overpay established stars and they weren’t a desired destination for top free agents Even though the rest of the league looked at scoring and athleticism as primary values the Spurs way was different They’ve put more emphasis on attributes like players intelligence cultural fit and the potential to learn And because other teams weren’t looking for these things there was less competition for these players who were available for less money Other than scouting players in Europe the Spurs also heavily relied on player development While star players were certainly better if you wanted to win immediately they often came with an ego On the other end when you get a player who still has to prove himself then you could teach and mold him to buy into the team concept which was one of the main postulates of the Spurs way One of the Spurs greatest assets has been Chip England the best shooting coach in the league who morphed many players into great shooters with Holt Papovic and Buford having tremendous working relationships and trust in one another The franchise leadership was topnotch far superior to other franchises where owners coaches and general managers were often pulling in different directions “RC and I have done everything together,” says Papovic “From day one we’ve done everything together and our groups have done everything together Managers are in coaches meetings We’re in the manager meetings and walk in as we please We talk about it argue about it have a beer or wine and move on We’ve done it all together.” With such a great structure at the top the Spurs rarely missed the target in the draft And they never added players who didn’t have the necessary attributes for their system And after they drafted Parker in 2001 they also added a second-year wing Steven Jackson and Bruce Bowen who was the epitome of the Spurs way of finding talent Bowen went undrafted in 1993 and then bounced around Europe and the NBA for almost a decade until the Spurs recognized that his gritty defense and shooting ability would fit like a glove next to Tim Duncan And soon Bowen would unofficially become the first 3 and D player in NBA history In the 2002 season Tim Duncan had the best year of his career averaging 25.5 points 12.7 rebounds 3.7 assists and 2.5 blocks per game finally winning an MVP award But even though the Spurs won 58 games and had the second best record in the NBA they once again fell to the Lakers losing 4-1 in the second round After the O2 season RC Buford officially became the general manager of the franchise adding a player who would prove to be one of the best draft choices in NBA history
With the 57th selection the San Antonio Spurs select Emanuel Gino Bele from Argentina Back in 1999 the Spurs drafted Manu Ginobili with the 57th pick And just like with Tony Parker nobody had any idea who Gobbili was
I I sit at home I watched the draft and we picked people that I’ve never heard of Sitting there Emmanuel Geneabilli Who did we just pick I was like “Oh yeah he’s he’s going to be great He’s this He’s Oh okay Pop whatever.” But in the next 3 years Manu became the best player in Europe winning every possible trophy in the second best league in the world and also leading Argentina to a silver medal at the 2002 FIA World Cup beating the USA in the group stage Buford who first scouted Genobi saw that his prized talent was ready to come overseas and Genobi joined the Spurs for the 0203 season After a somewhat disappointing rookie season Tony Parker blossomed in year two and it probably wouldn’t have been possible with any other franchise Not only because nobody else would have even drafted him but they wouldn’t allow an unproven rookie to make mistakes next to the league MVP But the Spurs were different starting Parker and playing him 29 minutes per game in his rookie season So when the 2003 season came Tony was ready stronger and better adapted to the NBA game Parker was one of the fastest players in the league improving his averages to 15 points and five assists per game becoming the second leading scorer on the team With Genobily Papovic was losing his mind because Manu played purely off instinct He was completely unpredictable and moved at a frenetic pace Half the time even he wasn’t sure what he was going to do next Manu was making crazy no passes that no other player would even think of let alone try in a game But even though it drove his coach crazy somehow there was a method to Manu’s madness because it worked He took 5 years of my life away At first I thought he was crazy But then I realized I couldn’t change him and I just let him play his way He shortened my life but he brought a dose of unpredictability that we were missing Papovic With the emergence of Parker and Genobi along with young point guard Speedy Claxton and forward Steven Jackson the Spurs had a great mix of youth and experience with veterans such as David Robinson Steve Kerr and Steve Smith But in the center of everything was Duncan At the age of 26 in his sixth NBA season Duncan was at that sweet spot where athleticism and experience meet resulting in another MVP year with averages of 23 points 13 rebounds four assists and three blocks per game Timmy led the Spurs to the best record in the league but after they got past the Suns in the second round awaited their arch nemesis the Shaq and Kobe Lakers who defeated them in the previous two seasons However this time the Spurs were deeper and better balanced offensively and defensively defeating the Lakers in six games In the conference finals the Spurs beat Durk and the Mavericks in six games to advance to their second NBA Finals this time against the New Jersey Nets And even though the Nets had the best point guard in the NBA in Jason Kidd and a gritty defensive team that played well together they didn’t have anyone who could stop Tim Duncan In the deciding game six of the series Duncan had 20 points 20 rebounds 10 assists and eight blocks nearly getting a quadruple double in what was one of the best finals games of all time The Spurs won the championship
And now this Congratulations San Antonio for your 2003 NBA champion San Antonio Spur with Duncan averaging 24175 and5 completely dominating on both ends of the court After the season David Robinson and Steve Kerr retired and Steven Jackson left after the team rejected his wish for a big contract And even though many analysts disagreed with this move as Jackson was a vital member of the team with plenty of heroics in the fourth quarter Pop often clashed with Stack and he felt that no player was above the team and the Spurs way Despite losing six different players from their championship roster the Spurs culture was based on finding who could seamlessly fit into their system And that’s why they added two more European players in Hido Turkalu and Rasho Nesterovich as well as Robert Auri one of the most clutch shooters in history And the results didn’t suffer In 2004 San Antonio had the best defense and the third best record in the NBA They swept the Grizzlies in the first round but in the second round they once again faced the Lakers who were ready for revenge With four future Hall of Famers on their roster LA proved too strong for San Antonio winning the series in six games In 2005 the team was mainly unchanged with the big four of Duncan Parker Genobi and Bowen leading the charge Duncan’s numbers decreased across the board as Papovic became the first coach to load manage his superstars Realizing that he didn’t need to overuse his star players in the regular season to win 50 plus games four of his main players averaged 32 minutes per game which had two benefits More rest before the playoffs and more minutes for role players whose confidence grew as a result San Antonio finished the season with 59 wins and the best defense in the NBA for the fourth time since Duncan arrived never finishing outside the top three But for the first time since they drafted Timmy the Spurs didn’t need Duncan to be their best scorer to win games In the first round against the Nuggets Manu led all players in scoring In the second round against Seattle Duncan was again the big dog but Parker and Gobbi weren’t far behind And in the conference finals against Phoenix the Spurs big three averaged 70 points per game combined defeating the Suns in five games to advance to another NBA Finals In the finals they played the Pistons and it was a bar fight With the two best defensive teams in the league going head-to-head the 100 point mark was only reached once in a tough sevengame series But then in game seven Duncan took matters into his own hands confidently announcing to the team that they weren’t going to lose the series Timmy led all scorers with 25 points And with 23 points from Genovi and big three-pointers from Robert Aie the Spurs prevailed winning game 7 81 to74 with Duncan winning his third Finals MVP In 2006 the Spurs won 63 games the best result in franchise history And in the playoffs after they defeated the Kings in six games San Antonio played the Mavs who had assembled a phenomenal roster around Dirk Noitzky And even though their big three averaged 73 points per game the Spurs bench wasn’t up to par and the Mavs advanced after seven games despite a monster 41 points 15 rebounds and six assists from Duncan in game seven After a down year we’ve seen many franchises try to completely reshuffle the deck and change half the roster However the Spurs aren’t most franchises and being erratic isn’t the Spurs way For the 2007 season San Antonio kept all their core guys and simply added a few more international players like Fabricio Alberto Beno Udra and Francisco Ellen And it paid off The Spurs had an impressive 58 wins the best net rating in the league and the deepest roster in the NBA with everyone contributing and every player feeling like they were an integral part of the team Their biggest threat in the West the Mavericks famously lost in the first round against the We Believe Warriors And in the second round the Spurs escaped victorious against the 7 seconds or less Suns after a controversial suspension of Boris Diao and Amari Starttomire for game five of the series And even though it wasn’t always pretty and naysayers saying they played slow boring basketball the Spurs didn’t care And after they defeated the Utah Jazz they were in the finals once again This time they played the Cavaliers and the 22-year-old LeBron James who miraculously dragged a group of innocent bystanders to the finals But even though LeBron was a phenom and the best player in the series his team was arguably the worst that ever made the finals With all five Spurs players focused on stopping James nobody on the Cavs outside LeBron averaged more than 12 points per game and San Antonio easily won the title in four games With 24 points on average Tony Parker led all players in scoring becoming the first European player to win the finals MVP With four titles in eight years the legacy of the Spurs dynasty was complete But they weren’t done yet even though it started to look like they were Despite winning 50 plus games year after year the playoff success they’d become accustomed to disappeared In 2008 the Spurs lost to Kobe and the Lakers in the conference finals The next year the Mavs defeated them in the first round of the playoffs And in 2010 the Suns swept the Spurs in the second round finally avenging all those losses in previous years In 2011 San Antonio won 61 games in the regular season But after another first round playoff exit against the Grizzlies many people wondered if this was the end of Timmy Tony and Manu At the beginning of the 2012 season Duncan was 35 and Manu was 34 In a game against the Sixers Duncan stayed on the bench and Coach Pop hilariously cited the reason he didn’t dress But even though two members of their big three were older the Spurs weren’t ready to be scrapped off at the junkyard The first reason for that was Tony Parker who was 29 years old and had entered the prime of his career If
you play the whole quarter it’ll be 29 minutes But I’m fine I didn’t play for 3 days Bob I’m 29 years old Get back out there
Even though he was always fast and a good ball handler Parker wasn’t much of a shooter in his early years But after years of working with Chip England Parker developed into one of the best mid-range shooters in the NBA His spin move layup was basically unguardable and Tony’s floater was as pure as springwater Parker became one of the most efficient point guards in the NBA And in 2012 he finished fifth in MVP voting making the AllNBA second team However the biggest reason for the Spurs revival wasn’t Parker but a guy with a weird laugh and the biggest hands you’ll ever see Kawhi Leonard To get Leonard the Spurs traded Pop’s favorite player George Hill And to let go of a locker room favorite and a steady backup point guard didn’t seem like a wise decision At that time Kawawaii was an unproven player a tweener not big enough to do damage with his back to the basket and technically not good enough to create from outside positions with an unreliable shot But Papovic was determined to get a new Bruce Bowen who could guard anyone and hit an occasional spot up three Once Kawawaii was installed in the starting five midway through his rookie season he never let go of that spot And Papovic got much more than just a new Bowen He got a monster Even as a rookie Kawaii was able to lock up most opposing wings and steal their lunch money with quick lateral movement pterodactyl arms and those huge mittens But it was surprising how efficient he was working tirelessly to improve his shot as maybe the best protege of Chip England’s school of shooting Other than Kawawaii in true Spurs fashion they also found other pieces that were overlooked by the entire league Patty Mills was selected with the 55th pick Danny Green with the 46th and Boris Dia was drafted 21st overall Even though none of those players were drafted by San Antonio they bounced around the league without anyone realizing their true potential Mills was playing in the Chinese League before RC Buford signed him and Green played in the G-League before Papovic turned him into a 3 and D sniper Dia was also forgotten in Charlotte before the Spurs scooped him up after realizing he was one of the best playmaking forwards in the NBA Add in Brazilian center Thiago Splitter and sharpshooter Matt Bonner the Spurs way did it again rebuilding their bench and finding value where others didn’t Just like the year before the Spurs finished the 2012 season with the best record in the West And in the playoffs they swept the first two rounds against the Jazz and Clippers But then in the conference finals they ran out of steam against the potent OKC Thunder with KD Russ and Harden However in the following season with a more seasoned Kawawaii Danny Green and the rest of their role players the Spurs emerged as the best from the West losing just two games on their way to another NBA Finals But against the Miami Heat they faced the best player on the planet and the best team in the regular season And despite LeBron’s greatness the Spurs were up 3-2 in the series and were up by five with a minute left to play in game six NBA representatives had already started rolling out the red carpet and bringing the Larry O’Brien trophy when a desperation three by LeBron cut the Heat’s deficit to two In the following possession the Spurs hit just one of two free throws which gave Miami a chance to tie
Rebound Bosch back out to Allen his three-pointer tie game with 5 seconds remaining
Miami miraculously survived and won game six in overtime And in game seven Tim Duncan failed his team for maybe the first time Timmy missed a close layup that would have tied the game And in the next possession LeBron hit a gamewinner over Kawawaii to clinch the title for Miami Genobily played badly in the finals Duncan was 37 And most analysts believe that this was the last harrah and that the Spurs missed their final opportunity for a championship But once again the Spurs kept doing Spurs things They added another European shooter Marco Bellanelli and started featuring Kawawaii more in their offense along with completely revamping their playing style which showed the true genius of Greg Papovic In the first decade of the Tim Duncan era when Timmy was in his prime the Spurs dragged games into the mud playing at a slow pace funneling opponents to the middle of the paint and letting Duncan protect the rim In the second part of Duncan’s career when he no longer had that same agility the Spurs embraced the pro-Uropean pace and space system that turned the former ugly duckling into a team that plays the most beautiful basketball in the league playing an extra pass find the open man give up the good shot for a great shot offense and hard-nosed defense to find the new era Spurs It is pretty much a European style of play of basketball as far as everyone has a role and everyone contributes Everybody has got to be able to pass and everybody has got to be able to think about the game and play defense the right way It’s not like okay we have a shooter and that’s the only thing he can do Everyone on the Spurs has to be able to do everything And I think in Europe that philosophy starts at a young age Boris Dial Pop is an innovator He leads the charge in a lot of areas of coaching especially at this level said coach Mike Brown a member of POP’s staff from 2000 to 2003 He does not rest in terms of thinking about the past He’s always thinking about what he can do to change and make the Spurs better going forward And while the rest of the NBA thought the Spurs were toast the Spurs toasted the entire NBA They once again had the best record in the league with the best net rating even though their best scorer Tony Parker averaged just 16.7 points per game However in an egalitarian system where everyone gets the same opportunity to dribble pass and shoot the Spurs had eight players scoring more than nine points per game which made them impossible to guard San Antonio defeated Dallas Portland and OKC to reach another NBA Finals and again face the Miami Heat But this time around the Heat had no chance With their quick passes ball and player movement Miami’s trapping defense didn’t work because they simply couldn’t rotate fast enough The Spurs shot 53% from the field and 47% for three in the finals beating Miami in five games and celebrating their fifth NBA championship Thanks to his suffocating defense and unreal shooting percentages 61% from the field 58% from three Kawhi Leonard was deservedly named the finals MVP But this title was special because it was a complete team effort with San Antonio playing arguably the most beautiful basketball in NBA history In the following season Duncan made the AllNBA team at the age of 39 and Kawawaii blossomed into a star winning defensive player of the year But the Clippers with prime CP3 and Blake Griffin found a way to finally overcome San Antonio in seven games Next season the Spurs did something unusual For the first time in their history adding a marquee player through free agency in power forward LaMarcus Aldridge San Antonio won a franchise record 67 games with the third best net rating in NBA history But after they got past the Grizzlies they couldn’t get past the Thunder And in that series Tim Duncan played the last game of his career It’s nearly impossible to find a player who has been as important to a team’s personality and success as Duncan was to San Antonio’s It’s pretty unusual that a team adopts the personality of the franchise player The problem is that the personality and the philosophy of the franchise player are not always great The thing with Tim is that he was such a great teammate and team player and focused so much on winning and playing the right way that the franchise turned into his character and has been a good thing for the team for a long time Boris Dial But even with Duncan gone Antony and Manu at a combined age of 73 the Spurs again won more than 60 games in a season Kawi Leonard who continued to improve year after year averaged 25 per game and was slowly but surely transforming into the best player in the NBA Kawawaii was Duncan 2.0 a calm non-nonsense guy who’s all about hard work and helping his team win The Spurs made the conference finals against the mighty Golden State Warriors with Kevin Durant But despite all that talent it was Kawhai who was the best player on the floor in game one The Spurs held a 21-point lead in the third quarter when one dirty play changed the course of their franchise Zaza Petulia planted his foot in Leonard’s landing area who injured his ankle and was out of the series The Spurs got swept without their superstar And though they didn’t know it yet it would be the last playoff game Kawhai ever played for San Antonio In the 2018 season Kawhai couldn’t heal from a quad injury and grew unhappy that the Spurs rushed him to play After nine games he stopped playing and stopped communicating with the team after which San Antonio was forced to trade him Even though they made the playoffs in 2018 and 2019 the Spurs dynasty was over After 20 years of sustained excellence led by great ownership intelligent hiring a world-class coach and the best power forward in league history the Spurs were winning for 20 years straight which was unheard of in the NBA especially in the era of salary cap and player empowerment The only comparable dynasty to theirs is that of the New England Patriots led by Bill Bichc and Tom Brady Just like the Spurs the Patriots had 20 winning seasons thanks to unshakable leadership great ability to find and develop talent a complete unison between their coach and franchise player and a culture that allowed no messing around with no player being above the team With the Spurs the greatest example of supreme culture and sacrificing for the benefit of the team is Mano Ginobili who agreed to come off the bench even though he could have been an allstar anywhere else But the Spurs way was a culture of selflessness lack of ego a culture of work and responsibility And that’s why they were the longest dynasty in NBA history Thank you for watching And if you like this video we have another one for you right here

The Spurs were a powerhouse in the NBA for nearly 20 years, which is unheard of in the modern NBA. Despite that, they don’t get the same recognition as other great teams. This is the Spurs story.

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