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To me this is between Bowen, AJ, Elliott, Kenon and Silas.
Bowen has three championships and played a vital role in each le. He hasn't made an All-Star team but he has been named to the All-Defensive team in each of his seven seasons with the Spurs (including five consecutive first team selections). Obviously, he hasn't been much offensively but his clutchness in the playoffs (6 out of 7 playoffs he shot better than 40% from beyond the three-point line) shouldn't be forgotten. Overall, next to Kenon, Bowen might go down as the most underrated Spurs player of All-Time.
AJ is the franchise leader in assists. He was basically the player coach of the 1999 championship. He, along with David Robinson, are arguably the two most responsible for making the Spurs a no nonsense franchise in the mid-1990s. AJ was also the unquestioned leader of the Spurs for the better part of a decade. He wasn't a talented player but he played about as well as possible with the tools he was given.
Elliott was a two-time All-Star who was one of the most skilled players in franchise history. In the peak of his career, he probably didn't live all the way up to his potential -- with part of the blame going to injuries. However, he was a huge part of the 1999 championship team and hit the biggest shot in franchise history. Coming back from a kidney transplant was unspeakably heroic and his dedication to the Spurs since day 1 has definitely been apparent.
Larry Kenon is probably the best player left and his numbers give him a very good case. He averaged 20 and 10 over five years with the Spurs while making three All-Star games. Problem was he not only left on bad terms, he didn't have much of an impact on the overall franchise outside of his great numbers.
Silas had a great season that was probably better than any season in Spurs history not authored by Gervin, Robinson or Duncan. That season earned him an All-ABA first team award. In the ABA days, Silas was as good or better than Gervin. He single-handedly won an amazing amount of games in his first couple years with the Spurs. The drawback with Silas is he was robbed of much of his prime due to injury.
Right now, I have no idea which player I'm going to vote for. I'm leaning toward either Bowen or Silas but I'm not sure. I'm pretty confident in that I like Bowen over AJ and Silas over Kenon. That leaves Bowen, Elliott and Silas. Bowen vs. Elliott is really damn close. And whoever is ahead in that race is really close to Silas.
This is a close one . . .
Here's to Elliott in a landslide!
