Dang, didn't realize until today that Bill Land is gone

[UNT Eagles 2016]

Damn. Chronic blood cancer. Not curable, but potentially long-term treatable, and less aggressive. Hope he's treated well and lives a long time. Not the same cancer Craig Sager had, fortunately, but still tiring.

Massive loss, similar to with Stan Kelly and Tim Duncan. :( End of an era.

Didn't realize that he was Dave Barnett's #2 dating all the way back to 1990, so he's been with the Spurs since the beginning of the David Robinson era. When Barnett left and was replaced by Joel Meyers in the late 1990s, he was Meyers' #2 until the start of the 2002-03 season, the year that he split games roughly evenly with Meyers and the Spurs won the championship. After 2003, Meyers treacherously signed with the Lakers and Bill Land became the Spurs clear #1, for 2003-04, 2004-05 (championship), and 2005-06. For the 2006-07 season only, Dave Barnett came back and split games roughly evenly with incumbent Land, which I felt at the time was a bit odd, but the Spurs won the championship and Barnett signed with ESPN after that year. From 2007 up through 2024, Land was the Spurs clear #1, missing very few Spurs telecasts, with weaker #2s like Andrew Monaco only filling in a small percentage of the time. A very impressive run indeed.

Stay well, Bill. You're a Spurs legend.

[exstatic]

Damn. Chronic blood cancer. Not curable, but potentially long-term treatable, and less aggressive. Hope he's treated well and lives a long time. Not the same cancer Craig Sager had, fortunately, but still tiring.

Massive loss, similar to with Stan Kelly and Tim Duncan. :( End of an era.

Didn't realize that he was Dave Barnett's #2 dating all the way back to 1990, so he's been with the Spurs since the beginning of the David Robinson era. When Barnett left and was replaced by Joel Meyers in the late 1990s, he was Meyers' #2 until the start of the 2002-03 season, the year that he split games roughly evenly with Meyers and the Spurs won the championship. After 2003, Meyers treacherously signed with the Lakers and Bill Land became the Spurs clear #1, for 2003-04, 2004-05 (championship), and 2005-06. For the 2006-07 season only, Dave Barnett came back and split games roughly evenly with incumbent Land, which I felt at the time was a bit odd, but the Spurs won the championship and Barnett signed with ESPN after that year. From 2007 up through 2024, Land was the Spurs clear #1, missing very few Spurs telecasts, with weaker #2s like Andrew Monaco only filling in a small percentage of the time. A very impressive run indeed.

Stay well, Bill. You're a Spurs legend.

Where the F have you been for the last 15 months? His diagnosis was announced summer of 2023. His retirement was announced months ago. They’ve already had Bill Land Night at the FBC.

[UNT Eagles 2016]

Where the F have you been for the last 15 months? His diagnosis was announced summer of 2023. His retirement was announced months ago. They’ve already had Bill Land Night at the FBC.

I'm 30 now and not interested in following a 17-win team or a non playoff contender in any case, that's where I've been. 1999 to 2016 were good times. Last year I followed religiously was 2017 until Steve "Sean Payton" Kerr paid the bounty to old man Zaza to take out our MVP's leg. Since then, I've been really disinterested in basketball beyond the pickup-game-at-the-duck-pond level.

At least with football there's only 16 or 17 games and your team has a chance almost every given year at the beginning. 82 games when you have a one man team and that one man is load-managed like Clippers era Kawhi is not worth my time. Just like that 162 game regular season sport where teams in LA and NY can literally buy championships.

[UNT Eagles 2016]

As crazy as it sounds, I would have brought back a familiar face and voice in Joel Meyers as opposed to this new Jacob rookie kid who sounds like he'd be more cut-out to be a color commentator for the all star celebrity game or something. Joel was a Spur from 99 to 03 and after getting axed by the Lakers in 2011 he's been rotting in NOLA for the Pelicans the past 13 years. Don't know anyone who would rather live in New Orleans than SA.

[exstatic]

As crazy as it sounds, I would have brought back a familiar face and voice in Joel Meyers as opposed to this new Jacob rookie kid who sounds like he'd be more cut-out to be a color commentator for the all star celebrity game or something. Joel was a Spur from 99 to 03 and after getting axed by the Lakers in 2011 he's been rotting in NOLA for the Pelicans the past 13 years. Don't know anyone who would rather live in New Orleans than SA.

Well, if he’s like you, he couldn’t be bothered with our 17 (sic) win team.

[ChumpDumper]

As crazy as it sounds, I would have brought back a familiar face and voice in Joel Meyers as opposed to this new Jacob rookie kid who sounds like he'd be more cut-out to be a color commentator for the all star celebrity game or something. Joel was a Spur from 99 to 03 and after getting axed by the Lakers in 2011 he's been rotting in NOLA for the Pelicans the past 13 years. Don't know anyone who would rather live in New Orleans than SA.

Dude's already like 70.

[Arcadian]

As crazy as it sounds, I would have brought back a familiar face and voice in Joel Meyers as opposed to this new Jacob rookie kid who sounds like he'd be more cut-out to be a color commentator for the all star celebrity game or something. Joel was a Spur from 99 to 03 and after getting axed by the Lakers in 2011 he's been rotting in NOLA for the Pelicans the past 13 years. Don't know anyone who would rather live in New Orleans than SA.

I would love for Joel Meyers to come back. He's even better than Bill Land, imo. He was the memorable voice of the Spurs during TD's MVP seasons.

Side note: When I read your topic title, I thought Bill had passed away :lol What a relief.

[Allan Rowe vs Wade]

New guy isn't even vanilla he's dulce de leche

[polandprzem]

TBH it would be nice to get rid of Sean Elliott. He is as bad as it comes.

[exstatic]

TBH it would be nice to get rid of Sean Elliott. He is as bad as it comes.

Burn in hell, polack.

[polandprzem]

Burn in hell, polack.

no, thanks

[polandprzem]

Although if I had to pick between this and listening to Elliott....

[scott]

Don't know if OP has heard, but Jonathan Simmons was not resigned.

[UNT Eagles 2016]

Burn in hell, polack.
yeah, that was a dumb post. Elliott is one of the best colors in the NBA and always has been. There's a reason he was only doing ~45% of Spurs telecasts in 2002-03... ESPN had him the other half of the time, and I remember him rambling complaining about being jet lagged all year that year. That year was a box of chocolates for Spurs fans in terms of which play by play guy (Meyers or Land 50/50) and which color guy (Elliott 45%, Quinn Buckner 40%, Lance Blanks RIP about 15%) we would get that year. I even still have a VHS tape of a lopsided win at Toronto where Meyers did the play by play AND color all by himself because Blanks didn't make his flight.

generally, Bill Land and Sean Elliott would be paired together, and Joel Meyers would be paired with the other two, but there were a few Joel/Sean games sprinkled in

fun fact, that was my favorite Spurs season (02-03) of all time, and I still have more than half of that season's games on VHS and one working VCR player, though I haven't watched them in over a decade.

part of why it was my favorite season is that not only was it Big Dave's last year but also the Spurs were big time underdogs so the process from going from just another western mid playoff fodder team to being an elite contender took kind of forever, we started 12-9 and 19-13 that year but finished 60-21 and on top of the west and got to rest our starters and let Dallas win game 82 for their 60th win since we owned the division record tiebreaker, case in point.

[Tyronn Lue]

I'm 30 now and not interested in following a 17-win team or a non playoff contender in any case, that's where I've been. 1999 to 2016 were good times. Last year I followed religiously was 2017 until Steve "Sean Payton" Kerr paid the bounty to old man Zaza to take out our MVP's leg. Since then, I've been really disinterested in basketball beyond the pickup-game-at-the-duck-pond level.

At least with football there's only 16 or 17 games and your team has a chance almost every given year at the beginning. 82 games when you have a one man team and that one man is load-managed like Clippers era Kawhi is not worth my time. Just like that 162 game regular season sport where teams in LA and NY can literally buy championships.
You're 30 and you go around liking your own posts under an alt but you cannot keep up with which announcer has cancer and left the booth when there are basically 2 announcers.

[UNT Eagles 2016]

I would love for Joel Meyers to come back. He's even better than Bill Land, imo. He was the memorable voice of the Spurs during TD's MVP seasons.

Side note: When I read your topic title, I thought Bill had passed away :lol What a relief.

mainly 2001-02. that was the Joel/Sean majority year, but it was clear by the end of that year that FSNSW, KABB and related Spurs affiliates really didn't think highly of that pairing... and that was also the last year of NBA on NBC.

by 2002-03 it was clear that FSNSW was ready to ditch the better but more expensive Meyers and go with Land for the future. Elliott had the joint contract with us and with ESPN that year, mainly to be ESPN's #2 or #3 commentator typically on the B or C teams... more often the C team... but let's not forget ESPN/ABC had some all-world "teams" and play by plays to pair Elliott with, from the primes of Brad Nessler, Brent Musburger, Jim Durham (RIP) and of course the young and rising star Mike Tirico. TNT had Albert, Harlan, and Mike Breen was TNT's C-team play by play at the time... it was the year right after the NBA on NBC ended and dissolved in 2001-02... Oh boy did we have it good in that regard in the early/mid 2000s compared to the 2010s and now.

As aforementioned, 2002-03 Spurs telecasts were a box of chocolates. You never knew what combination you'd get out of Joel/Bill + Sean/Quinn/Lance and they were all fairly equally likely. I have VCR recordings of all 6 permutations multiple times over.

The NBA was just better back then. Spurs and rust belt basketball, hard-nosed, defense-first, in-your-face, points-at-a-premium basketball, now that's the basketball I grew up with and that's the basketball I like, which is in large part why I refer to today's NBA as arcadey skittleball that's unwatchable in my strong opinion.

I have a very, very strong opinion against those 120-114 48-minute games being the norm and not the exception (generally Dallas/Sacramento etc, later Phoenix after they swapped out Marbury for Steve Nash) & that Stef Curry and players of his ilk ruined the game. The Adam Silver regime just thinking everyone wants to see more arcade mode skittleball and leaving us fans of defense out in the cold. Stupid rule changes like reducing the shot clock to 14 instead of the classic "fresh 24" after an offensive rebound. You used to look forward to the once every handful of games a big guy would shoot a three, not once every few possessions.

With all the chucking, ads on jerseys, and rules outlawing defense I'm surprised Adam Silver hasn't added trampoline zones on the court so you can pull off the triple flip dunks, tbh. Only, it was my generation and gen Y, gen X, not the loser zoomers, that appreciated dunks (as well as post-ups and quality ball movement) more so than chuck-a-three with 19 seconds on the shot clock, which is sadly the NBA today.

[UNT Eagles 2016]

You're 30 and you go around liking your own posts under an alt but you cannot keep up with which announcer has cancer and left the booth when there are basically 2 announcers.

I haven't watched a full Spurs or full NBA game since kawhi's leg was bountied. I made my promise to myself and kept it. I've watched bits and pieces on Youtube of Wemby highlights and Bill sounded just fine last spring. So I was unaware.