Spot Number 35 - Top 50 Spurs

[timvp]

SpursTalk's Top 50 Spurs
1. Tim Duncan
2. David Robinson
3. George Gervin
4. Gregg Popovich
5. Angelo Drossos
6. Manu Ginobili
7. Tony Parker
8. Sean Elliott
9. James Silas
10. Bruce Bowen
11. Larry Kenon
12. Avery Johnson
13. Alvin Robertson
14. Johnny Moore
15. RC Buford
16. Artis Gilmore
17. Peter Holt
18. Mike Mitchell
19. Bob Bass
20. Malik Rose
21. Robert Horry
22. Red McCombs
23. Doug Moe
24. Terry Cummings
25. Mario Elie
26. Willie Anderson
27. Billy Paultz
28. Robert McDermott
29. Stephen Jackson
30. Mark Olberding
31. Stan Albeck
32. Brent Barry
33. Mike Budenholzer
34. Swen Nater

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To pass the time until the start of preseason, let's see how SpursTalk.com ranks the Top 50 Spurs. Those eligible for the list include all players, coaches and owners. I don't want to define "top" too narrowly, but I think the best way to do it would be to think of the list as a list of the 50 most influential people who have helped make the Spurs one of the most successful franchises in the history of sport.

For more information on what we are doing, check out this thread (http://spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=103061).

In this thread, we will vote for spot number 35. Please place your vote. If you will, also explain in this thread why you voted how you did.

Thanks.



P.S.

Poll options listed in alphabetical order. If you want to vote for someone not on the list, post in the thread and I'll add the person.

Voting will end 2AM CST Saturday morning.

Please vote only once.

[timvp]

I added PJ Carlesimo, Hank Egan, Bob Hill and Larry Brown to this list:

Bob Hill
Hill was the coach Gregg Popovich hired when he was named the GM of the Spurs. Hill led the Spurs to a 62-20 record in his first year as coach and the team made it to the Western Conference Finals before losing against the Houston Rockets in the 1994-95 season. The next year the Spurs went 59-23. After beginning the 1996-97 season at 3-15, Hill was fired. His winning percentage of .681 is the highest in franchise history, while his win total of 124 ranks him sixth.

Coby Dietrick
Spent six years with the Spurs, three in the ABA and three in the NBA. All told, he played 484 games for the Spurs and the San Antonio averaged 48.3 wins per year during his six-year career. Dietrick averaged 6.9 points, 5.1 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 21.6 minutes per game. In the playoffs, he averaged 7.9 points per game and raised his field goal percentage substantially (53.6% in his Spurs playoff career compared to his regular season percentage of 46.7%).

Dale Ellis
Ellis spent two seasons with the Spurs, the 1992-93 season and the 1993-94 season. In those two seasons, the Spurs won 49 and 55 games, respectively. Ellis averaged 15.9 points and 3.6 rebounds in 33.5 minutes per game in those two season, while shooting 49.7% from the field, 39.7% from the three-point line and 78.9% from the free throw line. Ellis set the Spurs franchise record with 119 three-pointers in the 1992-93 season and then bettered it the next season with 131 makes. In his two years in the playoffs with the Spurs, his averaged fell across the board – 11.9 points on 43.6% field goal percentage and 30.6% three-point percentage.

Dave Corzine
From 1980 to 1982, Corzine played two seasons with the Spurs and never missed a game. In those 164 games, he averaged 10.3 points, 7.7 rebounds and 1.4 blocks in 25.3 minutes per game, while shooting 50.3% from the field. In his two seasons in San Antonio, the Spurs won 52 games in 1980-81 and 48 games in 1981-82. Corzine during the playoffs averaged 11.6 points, 8.3 rebounds and 1.1 blocks in 26.2 minutes per game on 47.2% shooting.

Dennis Rodman
Played for the Spurs in 1993-94 and 1994-95. The Spurs won 55 and 62 games in those two years, respectively. Rodman averaged 5.6 points and 17.1 rebounds per game in a total of 128 regular season games, while shooting 55.1% from the field. In his Spurs playoff career, he averaged 8.8 points and 15 rebounds per game on 53.3% shooting.

Gene Banks
In his four year career with the Spurs, he played 323 of a possible 328 games. During those four years, the Spurs averaged 44.8 win per season. Picked in the second round of the 1981 draft, Banks averaged 11.8 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.8 assists, while shooting 54.4% from the field. After his career with the Spurs, spent two years with the Bulls. At 27, he went overseas and played in Italy and Israel.

Hank Egan
When Pop played for the United States Air Force Academy, Egan was an assistant coach. Pop later became an assistant coach for six years for Egan when he became the head coach at Air Force, which was Pop's first coaching experience. Egan was the lead assistant coach for the Spurs for eight years -- from the 1994-95 season until the 2001-02 season.

Jaren Jackson
Jackson spent four seasons with the Spurs, from 1997 to 2001. In the 226 games he played, he averaged 7 points per game on 38.7% shooting from the field and 36.5% shooting from beyond the three-point line. His career peeked in the 1999 playoffs when he averaged 8.2 points and connected on 31 of the team’s 70 total made three-pointers during the championship run. In Jackson’s four seasons in San Antonio, the Spurs won an average of 57.3 games and took home the 1999 championship.

Larry Brown
His 153 coaching victories are tied for the third most in franchise history with Stan Albeck behind Gregg Popovich and Doug Moe. Had an overall record of 153-131 in the regular season during his three and a half seasons in San Antonio. Was 7-7 in 14 playoff games with the Spurs. His most impressive run in the playoffs came in the 1989-90 season when Brown and the Spurs took the eventual Western Conference champion Portland Trail Blazers to a 7th game in the second round. Brown is also responsible for introducing both Gregg Popovich and RC Buford to San Antonio -- as he had them both as assistant coaches.

Michael Finley
Finley has played with the Spurs the last three seasons. He has averaged 9.7 points and 3 rebounds in 25.2 minutes per game, while shooting 41.2% from the field and 37.5% from downtown. He has played 241 of a possible 246 regular season games and the Spurs have averaged 59 wins per season since he arrived. In the playoffs, Finley has averaged 9.5 points and 2.8 rebounds in 26.8 minutes per game, while shooting 42.3% from the field and 39.7% from beyond the three-point arc. The Spurs won the 2007 championship with Finley as the starting shooting guard.

Mike Gale
Spent parts of six seasons in San Antonio and played 414 games with the Spurs. In those six years, the Spurs averaged 46 wins per season. Averaged 7.9 points, 4.5 assists and 1.9 steals per game, while shooting 46.7% from the field. In playoff games with the Spurs, his scoring average jumped up to 9.2 points per game but his field goal percentage dropped to 44%.

PJ Carlesimo
Carlesimo was the lead assistant coach from the 2002-03 season to the 2006-07 season. In those five years, the Spurs won three championships. During his stint as lead assistant coach, the Spurs were 297-113 for a winning percentage of .724.

Rod Strickland
Playing parts of three seasons from 1989 to 1992, Strickland averaged 13.9 points, 8.2 assists, 4.2 rebounds and 2 steals in 36 minutes per game. In those three seasons, he played 146 regular season games and the Spurs averaged 52.7 wins per year. In the playoffs with the Spurs, he averaged 14.3 points and 10.4 assists per game.

Steve Kerr
Kerr played four complete seasons with the Spurs, from 1998 to 2001 and then came back for the 2002-03 season after spending a year in Portland. In the regular season, Kerr averaged 3.6 points and 0.9 assists per game in 12.6 minutes per game, while shooting 41.8% from the field and 39.4% from the three-point line. In the playoffs while with the Spurs, Kerr averaged 2.9 points on 41.2% shooting from the field and 35.7% shooting from beyond the three-point line. In his four seasons in San Antonio, the Spurs averaged 58.3 wins per season and won the championship in 1999 and 2003.

Vinny Del Negro
In his seven years with the Spurs, San Antonio averaged 49.7 wins and Del Negro played 433 games. He averaged 11.2 points and 3.6 assists, while shooting 48.2% from the field, 36.7% from three-point land and 82.7% from the line. In his 46 career playoff games with the Spurs, his scoring average dipped to 9.5 points and his shooting fell to 45%.

[Brutalis]

Larry Brown would be the last person to get my vote.

[timvp]

Article about Egan & Pop:


Buck Harvey: Popovich and Egan go at it again — now, it's temporary
San Antonio Express-News

Maybe the best thing that happened to Gregg Popovich in his basketball life was when he started talking to Hank Egan.

Maybe the worst was when he stopped.

Maybe the worst was when a coach who built a franchise based on family no longer had ties with someone who had become his big brother.

Maybe, because of that, these Finals take on a different meaning for both.

Personality clashes are nothing new in this league. There's some divisiveness in most locker rooms, even if it's not as noticeable as Walter Berry waving a butter knife at Alvin Robertson. Coaches come and go with the same human emotions in play.

But Popovich and Egan were different. Popovich was 17 and a freshman cadet at the Air Force Academy when he met Egan, who was then an assistant coach. Popovich spent many weekends at Egan's house, and Popovich babysat Egan's kids.

Even as adults, some still call him Popo.

Popovich and Egan learned the sideline defense from the first Air Force head coach in history. Bob Spear would teach others his system, namely a young assistant named Dean Smith. Egan replaced Spear when he retired, and Popovich returned to be Egan's assistant for a half-dozen years.

Did they ever argue?

"I'm an Irishman and he's Serbian," Egan joked. "What do you think?"

They went their own ways, yet they still stayed together. They were doing a clinic in Japan, for example, when Larry Brown called Popovich to see if he might want to jump to the NBA and help him coach the Spurs. That night Popovich bounced every concern off of Egan.

Popovich eventually became the Spurs'general manager, and one of his first moves was to hire Egan. Later, when Popovich named himself the coach, they schemed together on the bench, tinkering with Spear's sideline defense until it became the league standard, and they won a championship.

How many coaches ever go that far back and achieve that much?

Then a few things were said during the 2001-02 season, and eventually nothing was said. They didn't yell at each other, but the Spurs'staff felt the awkward silence. When the playoffs ended that season with another loss to the Lakers, Egan opted for the retirement he had put off the year before.

Popovich hired P.J. Carlesimo, and within weeks Egan came out of retirement to help another former player, Eric Musselman, at Golden State. Egan would retire again, and yet the silence continued.

"In retrospect," Egan said Saturday, "it was stupid, like all these things are."

They never made this public, and they never said anything negative about the other. In an interview with a reporter during these years, Egan went on and on about how bright and genuine Popovich was.

Then, when asked the last time they had talked, Egan stammered. Asked if anything had happened between them, Egan turned away as he choked up.

Something changed when Cleveland did. Yet another former player, Mike Brown, was in need of counsel, and Egan again signed up to assist. As it was with Popovich before, Brown cares about defense first, and he needed Egan's help on the offensive side.

Somewhere in this melding of staffs — with Danny Ferry and Brown mimicking what Popovich had done in San Antonio — Popovich and Egan crossed paths and mended whatever had been wrong. Before a game in Cleveland last season, in particular, they talked at length.

What has this reconciliation meant? "It meant a lot," Egan said.

It means a lot now, too. With the air clear, they can compete as friends. After Game 1, for example, Egan left a message on Popovich's phone.

"He's the classiest of class acts," Popovich said of that.

Now the words don't mask anything. Now Egan calls Popovich "a Hall of Fame coach," and Popovich said this when asked what he has learned from Egan:

"Well, that would take a real long time. Is there anybody that you've known for 35 years? But suffice it to say the first practice plan that I ever did was with Hank Egan ... He taught me basketball as a player. He disciplined me, he stroked me and he kicked me in the butt ... He's meant the world to me as far as basketball and a personal relationship."

Maybe the best thing about these Finals for Popovich and Egan?

They are on opposite sides again, but only for another week or so.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/basketball/nba/spurs/stories/MYSA061007.01S.COL.BKNharvey.spurs.34fe6f4.html

[alamo50]

"Brown is also responsible for introducing both Gregg Popovich and RC Buford to San Antonio -- as he had them both as assistant coaches".

This is one of the reasons why I have been voting for him since like 10 places ago.

[Spooky]

Gawd, I hope VDN does'nt win this spot. I voted Egan.

[Ed Helicopter Jones]

I spent a lot of time cheering for Gene Banks as a kid. I remember once he went for 40+ against LA. In terms of 'influence', at least on me, I'm going with Banks.

[rascal]

Of who is left Larry Brown has had the most influence on the success of the spurs. Keep Del Negro falling lower on this list.

[rAm]

This is getting scary, VDN and Rasho are getting to close for comfort. I can't believe people actually consider Rasho one of the top 50 spurs of all time.

[Rynospursfan]

Larry Brown for sure, without him there would be no Pop, no Egan, no RC.

[baseline bum]

Vinny Del Negro and Rodman are tied for the top spot left? What a bunch of cock shit.

[timvp]

LB is a pretty good candidate for this spot. He helped get the DRob era off to a good start. He brought in Pop and RC when people thought he was crazy for going with such inexperienced assistants. Pop was a Divison III coach and RC was a 28-year-old kid who was a low level assistant in college.

Brown was his typical drama queen self at the end of his stay but he did a good job overall.