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Only started watching basketball in 04, so naturally I didn't get to see the team play. Much has been written about the title teams and there is a lot of footage out there of the other ones, but I can't seem to find anything on the 2000 squad.
I know once Duncan went down all hopes of retaining the title vanished, but were hopes high before then?
I thought they were going to repeat. At the time there was talk of breaking up Shaq & Kobe because they weren't getting along and had not produced as expected. Timmy went down, Lakers won the chip, and the rest is history. I often think about what could have happened if Timmy had stayed healthy that year.
Hopeful, but with Sean Elliott breaking down it looked problematic. The guard corps was also ancient. Both things made play against the Lakers tremendously difficult. We didn't fix the SF situation until we finally found Bowen.
After the way the Spurs rolled through the '99 playoffs to their 1st title, I expected them to repeat.
I thought they'd knock LA out of the playoffs and then get wrecked by Portland in the WCF.
Excited as fuck till Duncan got hurt
That was 2001 when Shaq and Kobe came close to being broken up when they were having lousy regular season. In 2000 the Lakers won 67 games and Kobe was the clear beta.Quote:
Originally Posted by SnakeBoy
I didn't like our chances, JJ and Elie were terrible and Elliott was not able to play a lot of minutes when he came back. Then TD went down and it was over
Damn I've been wrong all these years :depressedQuote:
Originally Posted by baseline bum
People who thought they'd repeat were kidding themselves. It was an old team. They struck gold in a lockout-shortened season and I was bananas about it, but that team had problems the next year. If they hadn't pulled two rabbits from a hat in Ginobili and Parker who knows where the hell we'd be.
Interesting, even after the 99 Sweep of Portland? I know they added Pippen that year but you thought they would get wrecked? I mean it is possible they would have lost true indeed but why wrecked?Quote:
Originally Posted by baseline bum
I had expectations but was so high from the year earlier after their first title it was just gravy that year. I never thought the Spurs would win one title and D Rob would retire without a ring so that first had me on a high for a few years. I didn't really care to be honest, hoped they would do well the next year and ring but that 99 was so special it was elating for a while.This is VERY true.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Body
Man, for me '99 was the most amazing thing I wasn't sure was ever going to happen. I didn't know how to react to the next season and it's expectations.
I was too used to my Robinson led team to flame out like they always did.
Then I watched a young Tim Duncan dominate the one team Robinson couldn't dominate- the Utah Jazz.
Karl Malone was a nemesis to D Rob and yet was nothing to Duncan.
My brain couldn't consider the implications and now here we are. 5 LOBT's later. From the team that couldn't get over the hump.
They were the Clippers before the Clippers in the 90's. A team that was talented and COULD make it to the big game, yet never did and nobody really cared or liked them.
Now? We the tip of the top baby. Even the Lakers look at us right now in envy.
This shit is surreal.
Yeah, that team wasn't going to repeat and I never thought they would. Elliott was irreplaceable and the defensive rule changes made Mario Elie almost unplayable when he was very solid defensively under the 99 and before rules. Kersey wasn't fast enough to guard threes even under the 90s rules, but under the 2000 ones it was game over. Porter was really solid in 99-00, he lost about a step or seven the next year. Samaki Walker was an obvious bust. I still remember watching Channel 4 and Don Harris came on a commercial break with a teaser saying "Tune in at 5 to see what new bigman the Spurs signed away from Dallas" and all I could think was "Please be Gary Trent, please be Gary Trent." Then I went on the WOAI Spurs board and saw it was Wanker instead. :lolQuote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Body
You could tell very early that year that the hand checking rules were very much not in favor of Spurs defenders. Jaren Jackson, a marginal player to begin with, came into the season out of shape. 2k New Years parties. Soon the Little General would be attacking Malik Rose in the shower and standing on the table to get Chucky Brown thrown off the team. The corpse of Steve Smith. Juwan Howard and the nail for Anderson's Spur's career. Bone chips and other detritus in the Admiral's back. Sean's kidneys and his redemption through his brother's sacrifice.
Danny Ferry with cheap pushes and holds that would get into opponents heads. Kevin Willis would step to them. Stephen Jackson raining 3 balls in the clutch. Malik Rose defending guys twice his size and pulling it off. Speedy Claxton saving the cookie. That bench was fun and rang again. Tony and Manu's first years.
Because the Blazers wrecked the Spurs in the regular season. They added not only Pippen, but Detlef Schrempf and then Steve Smith back when he was devastating on the block. Then Bonzi Wells was becoming a really good player too. That team was enormous and could throw waves of bigmen at Duncan and then you had Scottie Pippen there to double. They were one of the deepest teams in league history too.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sean Cagney
Of their four matchups that year, only one was competitive, namely the one the Spurs were down big in the fourth, DRob got pissed about a foul and got himself ejected, and then Duncan went into God mode the final 6 or 7 minutes of the game to steal it. But the other 3 matchups were ugly as hell if you were a Spurs fan.
Lol What was the story w/ Avery and Chucky Brown? 2K New years parties? Never heard those.Quote:
Originally Posted by FuzzyLumpkins
Not only was Jaren Jackson out of shape that 2000 season, he took more bad shots than anyone I can remember in a Spurs Jersey and don't forget the horrible dreads :lol.
I've never seen a backcourt regress as much as the 2000 Spurs. From Avery to Elie to Jaren Jackson to Sean Elliott ( not his fault). Sadly, Terry Porter was the best perimeter player that year.
That team had no chance at a title, even with Tim.
Avery went to Pop and told him to release Brown. Pop did. I think Brown called AJ a snake in the grass to the press on the way out. Soon he and Malik Rose had words and AJ followed him into the shower where it escalated. That story last about 5 hours on the EN website. I always thought the Little General could have used some introspection during that time.Quote:
Originally Posted by MaNu4Tres
Blazers should have won the title that year man, no way they should have lost to LA in those conference finals but they found a way to blow that game 7. That team was deeeeeeeep, very good team. I usually don't go by what happens in the regular season simply because look at OKC and the Spurs in 2014 and them sweeping the Spurs but you might be right on this one being Portland was a damn good team.Quote:
Originally Posted by baseline bum
Look it I'm 37 and started following NBA in 1991 but didn't become a 'devoted fan' of the Spurs until 2001-2002 season.
So I missed out on the 90s heartaches to the extent that years like 04, 06, and 11 tick me off.
There's gotta be a quantifiable sense of satisfaction for Spurs fans from the 90s to see how far the franchise has come.
All I remember vividly is the WCF debacle to Houston sandwiched between early exits to what it felt like Utah every time.
So I definitely tuned out entirely in 1999-2000 and judging by the roster along with the comments from posters on this thread, it may not be an understatement that 2000 was the weakest team Duncan or even Robinson endured with heretofore.
Pretty good summary of the team. :boboQuote:
Originally Posted by FuzzyLumpkins
I never really thought that 1999-2000 team was going to win after the Elliott press conference. The qualitative difference between those Spurs and the Lakers and Blazers of that year was pretty substantial, even with Tim. Once Timmy went down in Sacramento, my hope was that they wouldn't get swept in the First Round. Came close to that fate anyway.
If anything, 2000 delayed the inevitable, which reared its ugly head in the 2001 West Finals, when the older Spurs had a hard time keeping up with the Lakers. I've long believed that the 2001 WCF forever changed the things that Pop and RC value in players -- that it reinforced the value of competitiveness even more than sheer talent. Say what you will about individual Spurs since then, but the hallmark of the post 2001 Spurs has been their unwillingness to quit, even after difficult losses that would break many teams. Ginobili might be the ultimate manifestation of that; he doesn't always play well (more and more true in the later years), but when push comes to shove, he competes every night which didn't really happen in 2001 when the going got tough.
I've also long believed that if the Spurs had made a run in 2000, they might have met 2001's fate (at the hands of the Lakers or Blazers) a year sooner and the overhaul would have started then and there. Again, you can say what you will about Parker over the course of his career, but if the Spurs are fishing for a young point at the end of the first round in 2000, they might have tried to pin the future of the franchise on Erick Barkley or Marco Jaric or some other player who couldn't have ever done what Parker has.
Never thought we would repeat that year. Our perimeter talent was just far too weak and that would prove to continue to be the case the next two years. Frankly, I felt our perimeter players were JUST good enough in 99 to get it done but we definitely would've fallen to either the Lakers or Portland in 2000. I believe though that Portland wouldve presented bigger problems believe it or not. LA was its most vulnerable during that run despite Shaqs great individual run. People forget Sacremento took them to elimination as did Portland. I believe we split the season series with LA. Kobe was only a budding (but still dangerous) scorer/playmaker at that point but he wasn't the full on lethal threat yet that he would become the NEXT year. Portland was a very big and lengthy team and had the bodies to make Duncan work. His support just wasn good enough especially on the perimeter.
Tbh, most every Spurs fan back then was sure they'd repeat before the season started. I don't remember a Spurs fan who thought otherwise.
But once the season started, it was a hell of a bumpy ride. That was easily the most dysfunctional season in the Tim Duncan Era.
-Chucky Brown was a bust as the Elliott replacement. It got to the point where AJ demanded that the Spurs waive him.
-Speaking of AJ, he was alllllllllllllllllllllmost traded. The Spurs had agreed to trade him to the Clippers for Derek Anderson and Mo Taylor, IIRC, but then Sterling vetoed it. Then the Spurs agreed to trade him to the Hornets for David Wesley but Paul Silas then threatened to quit as coach if Bob Bass did the trade.
-Why was AJ almost traded? Because he blasted Pop whenever he'd get bench in the fourth for Terry Porter. Oh, and AJ fighting Malik Rose in the shower. Then there was that bus fight between Steve Kerr and AJ...
-Pop got embarrassed by Mario Elie. After a loss, Pop said something like the Spurs need Elie to step up in the leadership department. Elie responded in the media by saying he's not the coach and it's Pop's job to be the leader. Ouch.
-Jaren Jackson had turned into a damn cow. Spurs fans call Parker fat for gaining like eight pounds. JJ, on the other hand, literally gained about 30 pounds of blubber after the '99 championship.
-Duncan kinda took the year off defensively. Thankfully Robinson was still a beast on defense so the Spurs were still elite but they weren't anywhere close to the stops-on-demand '99 team.
It's a miracle that team still won 53 games. But going into the season, every Spurs fan was planning where they'd sit during the parade, tbh.
Portland was still down 3-1 in that series. Had that Game 7 gone the other way it would have been an even bigger choke. :lolQuote:
Originally Posted by Sean Cagney
Jaren Jackson got a contract and just gave up. The vets that were so instrumental to the '99 run were either gone or too old to help. Terry Porter was not as much help as I wish he'd been. Many players on that team didn't handle success well, and then Duncan had to dunk on Scot Pollard. They really missed Sean, and I don't remember thinking they realistically had a chance to repeat from the time he announced his disease, which was right after the '99 title. Frankly, the highlight of the 2000 season for me was when he came back against Atlanta and came down the lane for a dunk. That should be on the "best Spurs moments" thread, because that was pretty good.
I never realized Mo Taylor was part of that trade. I remember Pop's quote to the media was something along the lines of be happy, teams actually want to trade for you now to AJ. :lolQuote:
Originally Posted by timvp
I know man, they had no business with all that talent getting down 3-1 in that series IMO. You could see them break in that 4th Q and start panicking when LA put their foot on the pedal, they got nervous and cracked and were a meantally weak team spite all that talent. The 99 Spurs were the quite opposite but the 00 Spurs as some mentioned were not near that level of play the 99 team displayed when they came together. The 00 Spurs had no shot at a title IMO but they did match up well with LA during the year if I am correct? They had a winning record vs. them.Quote:
Originally Posted by baseline bum
For someone who is a recent (2009) Spurs fan this is a fascinating thread.
I've heard people say that if the Lakers lost Game 7 to Portland they would blow the team up
Not anything after TD went down and certainly didn't expect Samaki Walker to play out of his mind in his place in the playoffs, which he didn't and couldn't. But before that, yeah, I thought we'd repeat.
Defensive rule changes killed us. As said above, ******'s decline hurt along with Jackson gettin slower. Our guards could no way defend after those changes. Had they changed the rules in 98-99, we probably don't win it
What I remember was we were not expected to win in '99. I think one of the games they were having a discussion how this team is probably a year or two away from winning a title, because we had so many new players.
Going into 2000 obviously we expected to repeat but the team didn't age well. I remember getting blown out by Portland by like 40 points or something and at that point I knew we were in trouble. Of course once Tim went down we just wrote off the year, and the Lakers were very Hot.
We started off 14-3... pretty awesome start, tbh... lost a few on the road out East and then the season spiraled out of whack from there :lmao
also, we never lost to Portland by 40 or anything close
Honestly I thought the Spurs would have won back to back had Duncan's knee not gotten taken out against the Kings. Spurs struggled that year a lot due to missing Sean Elliott for most of the year but once he came back they started winning games and finished the year with 53 wins. Spurs also still had the mental edge against the Lakers that year considering they went 3-1 against them. I remember in the last game of the regular season David Robinson held his own against peak Shaq with out Duncan in an amazing win.
You are correct I was thinking of the game we only scored 67. I just remember a really bad loss.
44 Jan 29, 2000 Spurs @ Portland Trail Blazers L 67 - 81 lost 1 28 - 16
I thought the Spurs would repeat right up until it became obvious that Duncan would not play in the postseason.
In fact, I still think they would've.
No shooters and everyone knew JJ was a fluke. Also the PG situation was bad. But Duncan and Robinson (if he could hold up) were monsters.
The Heat were still decent too
Yeah. Elie got old, Sean was never full strength, and Jaren Jackson played over his head in 1999.Quote:
Originally Posted by MaNu4Tres
The other related question, if Duncan never hurt his knee in 2000 and played his whole career, how much better would he have been? He was quite a bit more athletic pre-injury.
Could have sworn the Spurs gave him a deal before he got fat and stopped playing. They were still paying him after he left the team.Quote:
Originally Posted by phxspurfan
And the Spurs could have won it all if Duncan played. Four titles later, I'm okay with Pop's decision.
I think that the Spurs gave him a 3 year contract and he came to camp 30 pounds heavier than the previous season and out of shape.Quote:
Originally Posted by Obstructed_View
Bout sums up that little fucker right there.Quote:
Originally Posted by timvp
Still sickens me how this fan base holds him in such a fucking high regard when his greatest skill was passing the ball to David Robinson or hitting a wide open layup thanks to the double/triple teams Robinson would get.
No wonder there is no chance he would return to this organization as long as Tim Duncan is around.
Anyone know of the relationship between AJ and Big Dave these days?
OH and fuck Jaren Jackson, talk about a fucking whale.
I was in hschool when all of this stuff went down so I remember all of it except for the Kerr-AJ fight. Do you know the details of that fight it just seems comical that those two went at it.Quote:
Originally Posted by timvp
Avery sucked but he played well in 1999. He couldn't shoot, drive to the basket, or play defense. Never should have retired his #.
Jazz were descending and the Spurs had dismantled Shaq/Kobe in 99. I expected a repeat.Quote:
Originally Posted by TXstbobcat
I thought Duncan was leaving to go to New York. I was also very high during those days
Terry Porter fell
Daniels getting into fights playing pickup ball at Homecourt America
I was expecting the title until Duncan went down. DROB was still awesome, the back court was old and slow as fuck but it didn't matter as much back then as we were a slow tempo team. We were a very different team back then and the NBA as a whole was very different also.
Lakers had shaq, kobe was not yet prime, their other starters glen rice, ac green, ron harper were ancient. Their bench was Sally, Horry, Fox, Shaw and Fisher. We could have taken them.
Spurs owned LA for a little while starting in 1998-99 through 01 regular season (Then 01 playoffs happened lol), I remember their record vs. LA including the sweep in 99 playoffs and they posted it on SC at the time early in the 01 season. The Spurs lost their edge and mojo against LA in those 01 playoffs of course and it continues through the next season and 02 playoffs, but they had the edge at one point like you said and were 3-1 vs. LA in 00.Quote:
Originally Posted by daslicer
For such a religious guy he sure was judgemental and an asshole a lot of times, which sums up most of the people who are deep into religion and judge others. AJ was a jerk off pretty much and he was not that good at bball IMHO, still love that 99 game winning shot though.Quote:
Originally Posted by Das Texan
That's pretty much how I felt back then about the Lakers. Kobe wasn't in his prime until '01 so he wasn't a force yet. Back during that time period I felt Drob and Duncan just overwhelmed the Lakers that they had no counter to overcome both of them on both ends of the court.Quote:
Originally Posted by Russo21
I remember feeling a little worried about the team. Outside of Duncan and Robinson, they seemed so old. I think the pain of Timmy going down wiped from my memory details like ******'s decline and the defensive rule changes.
Ah the Chucky Brown year...
Damn I had no idea the Little General was such a little asshole. All I remember from that season was crying when we lost to Phx, was so young I still had unrealistic expectations even without Timmy.
Wtf do you mean older fans? That was just 15 years ago. We're not exactly talking about Wilt's 100 point game here.Quote:
Older fans ...
:lolQuote:
Originally Posted by Keepin' it real
When I hear people talk older fans here I think of these people talking about the early to mid 90s spurs.
When I think of old fans i think of that decade in the 80s with Gervin, Moore, Gilmore, Mitchell, Robertson. Trying to think off the top of my head further who were on the team during that decade outside of the end of the 80s with David Rob, Cummings, Anderson, Moses Malone at the end of his career, Strickland, David fooking Wingate ha-ha.. Man I always liked Frank Brickowski for some reason when I was a kid. Such a great name for a basketball player. Some of these guys are stretching into the 90s though...
Repeat till Timmy got hurt. But surely thought we'd beat phoenix even without him.
They may have been limited offensivley but come the 4th quarter that D was like a boa constrictor till they choked you out.
That team were not going anywhere even with a healthy Duncan. That "Cakers" thing was meant to happen. The only thing standing in the way was the Blazers and they got robbed. If the Cakers does not advance in 2000, they would not dominate the West.
I think its best of think of the 1998-2001 spurs, not as the beginning of the tim duncan era, but more like the mid 90's spurs last chance at a title, with their young superstar in the making. Yeah, adding Duncan was huge, but those mid 90's spurs were real close to winning titles. Getting duncan extended that teams life, and ended up winning a title in 99. That was probably the best case scenario, getting one title. That 2000 team, 2001 team, were that mid 90s team's last run. Be happy they got one. The actual "build around tim duncan" teams didnt start until 2001-2002, when they added TP, signed Bruce Bowen, and were one year away from Manu.
I remember Wilts 100 point game and I am not old!!!! YET!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by Keepin' it real
YupQuote:
Originally Posted by slick'81
And with that comeback win in Portland towards the end of the regular season, I felt we had momentum
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