What started the Spurs/Mavs rivalry?

[GinobiliForTres]

Spurs and Mavs have been regular season rivals since they both started playing well, simply due to their shared division and the I-35 relationship. To me, though, the real rivalry started in the 2003 WCFs.

2003 - Mavs lose Nowitzki, then lose their grasp on Game 6 when Kerr and Jackson go bananas. If I was a Mav fan, that would've stung.

2006 - The infamous series that really made the rivalry legendary. Extremely heated, Spurs lose Game 7 in San Antonio, in large part due to Manu's foul. I can tell you as a Spurs fan, that stung.

2007 - Mavs flame out to Warriors, Jason Terry talks about Spurs anyways.

2009 - Mavs punk Spurs in first round.

2010 - Spurs punk Mavs in first round.

That's about as heated as current rivalries get.

i have to laugh every time i hear that Lakers/Heat is the best ongoing rivalry. yeah, i've heard it. lakers/celts is more credible.

but you ask anyone, and there is nothing better than watching San Antonio and Dallas go at it when both are healthy.

[ohmwrecker]

Forgot about Howard/Anderson thing . . . goddamn Mavs!

[SAtown]

Three Things

1) Juwann Howard cheap shot on Derek Anderson in the 01 Playoffs as he was going to the basket. Seperated shoulder. DA was a non-factor in the Western Conf Finals vs LA as a result.

Yep. This basically started it all. I was at that game, and after so many years of booing Barkley, Malone, and the entire rockets team for years, I'd never heard the dome crowd get so pissed than that moment.

[Darrin]

Talking to that same Mav fan friend of mine that gets to hang out courtside and in the locker room (only to get about as much insider info as BUMP or mono after downing a Red Bull), we got into the discussion of what actually lit the Spurs/Mavs feud fire. Was it simply when the Mavs started winning? Was it when Cubes started trashing SA publicly? Was it the nut-punch?

My buddy actually insisted that it all started when TP and Manu gave a few snide remarks to the papers about the "little brother Mavericks" and how that slight instantly infuriated Cuban, thus, getting this whole I-35 rivalry started.

What do you guys think? Does anyone remember these quotes from Manu and TP? I'd be curious to learn the context...

I think it started in 2002-03 when the Mavericks were dominating the Conference and the Spurs came in and stole the Division and the Conference on the last day of the season. They had a playoff series before that but I don't think the Mavs were expected to beat the Spurs. 2002-03 was supposedly the Mavericks year and the Spurs played spoiler in the regular season and playoffs.

[Roddy Beaubois]

Three Things

1) Juwann Howard cheap shot on Derek Anderson in the 01 Playoffs as he was going to the basket. Seperated shoulder. DA was a non-factor in the Western Conf Finals vs LA as a result.

2) Cuban being a total jerk/blowhard the last decade

3) Rat Face's punch on Finley in the 06 POs

+1

Its just those evil mavericks against these classy spurs

[baseline bum]

Spurs/Mavs has been a pretty good rivalry since about 2000. I remember a game in 99-00 when TD dropped 53 on them only to lose when Tim Hardaway hit a 30-foot desperation shot. Then there was a game at Reunion when Finley stuck the game winner right in Sean Elliott's face as time expired. A year or two later Duncan buried a game-winner in Nowitzki's face on an NBC Sunday game. However, the rivalry got heated when Juwan Howard took Derek Anderson's arm off at the shoulder in game 1 of the 01 WCSF and then tried the same move on Malik Rose in game 4. Ever since then there has been lots of bad blood between the teams. The Spurs were pissed at the cheap shots, the Mavs were pissed that Spurs fans were pelting their wives and parents with beer and popcorn and after that foul, then Cuban started running his mouth, and so on.

[BlackSwordsMan]

Buncha fat mexicans rooting for different teams is all it is.

[dbestpro]

The rivalry started after the Mavs won their first championship.

............................still waiting.

[frodo]

because mainly of their locations imho, born to be rivals imho. spurs were initially founded in dallas and were later moved to SA, so most dallas sportsfans just consider the spurs a traitor to their city.

[Budkin]

For me it didn't start till 2006 West semi finals.
Cubans comments about Riverwalk
Terrys nut punch
Dirks and 1
That is when the rivalry truly started. The Spurs have what the Mavs want and that fuels it even more

I don't know I think it might have just been throughout that season. Remember the game in early March where Horry put his teeth on Stackhouse's arm? That's when the bad blood really began to boil over.

[Budkin]

Buncha fat mexicans rooting for different teams is all it is.

[Dex]

I don't know I think it might have just been throughout that season. Remember the game in early March where Horry put his teeth on Stackhouse's arm? That's when the bad blood really began to boil over.

That was hilarious when Horry "bit" him.

[ohmwrecker]

so most dallas sportsfans just consider the spurs a traitor to their city.

That is totally inaccurate and unfounded.

[Biggems]

Spurs/Mavs has been a pretty good rivalry since about 2000. I remember a game in 99-00 when TD dropped 53 on them only to lose when Tim Hardaway hit a 30-foot desperation shot. Then there was a game at Reunion when Finley stuck the game winner right in Sean Elliott's face as time expired. A year or two later Duncan buried a game-winner in Nowitzki's face on an NBC Sunday game. However, the rivalry got heated when Juwan Howard took Derek Anderson's arm off at the shoulder in game 1 of the 01 WCSF and then tried the same move on Malik Rose in game 4. Ever since then there has been lots of bad blood between the teams. The Spurs were pissed at the cheap shots, the Mavs were pissed that Spurs fans were pelting their wives and parents with beer and popcorn and after that foul, then Cuban started running his mouth, and so on.

One of those cheap shots came courtesy of Eduardo Najera.....ever since that cheap shot, I have called him a dirty Mexican...and dont you dare call me racist, cause he is from Mexico....then again, he has been cheating since his days at Cornerstone here in SA, when he broke rules to play for them.

I was very disappointed with the cheap shot by Howard. I had a lot of respect for him as a player, but then he went out and did that...oh and followed it up with several more later in his career, a few of those against the Spurs. Howard went from overpaid, overhyped, but classy....to overpaid, overhyped, and classless.

Jason Terry is a punk too. Punching players in the nuts, tripping players intentionally, grabbing their feet so they can't get up, etc.

But that's ok, I am sure they have their issues with Bruce....still, Bruce never did anything that malicious to the Mavs players...nothing like what I have listed above.

Yes, the Mavs have gotten the best of the Spurs on a few occasions, and that made it a rivalry. It is not a rivalry if one team dominates the battles. Still, even though the Mavs have won a few battles, they have nothing in their trophy case to show for it.

I promise you this.....The Mavs hate the Spurs a lot more passionately than the Spurs hate the Mavs. Just like the Spurs hate the Lakers a lot more than the Lakers hate the Spurs.

[sefant77]

But that's ok, I am sure they have their issues with Bruce....still, Bruce never did anything that malicious to the Mavs players...nothing like what I have listed above.

Pure "luck"?

So the Mavs were always the one with the cheap shots and dirty plays against the holy fair Spurs? Seriously?

[#41 Shoot Em Up]

I don't know I think it might have just been throughout that season. Remember the game in early March where Horry put his teeth on Stackhouse's arm? That's when the bad blood really began to boil over.

I rememeber that whole season but that detail slipped my mind
Yeah that was when it started that year I suppose

[Cessation]

Horry is a true compe or, lol.

[Thompson]

If memory serves (though, I was all hopped up on Xanax and liquor at the time simply to make it THROUGH that game), Manu had just hit a shot (a 3?) to put the Spurs up by 3. He then fouls Dirk on the arm going up for a lay-in with about 8 seconds left to play. Dirk makes the bucket AND the FT, then hacks Duncan across the forearms as he's trying to dunk it with 2 seconds left -no call. the game goes into OT, and the Spurs lose game. ing. seven. on their. own. home. floor.

FIFY. Several other horrible calls/non-calls in that series, but this one almost certainly decided the series.

[DeadlyDynasty]

It's too bad Derek Anderson didn't play in the first 2 games, they may have been 30-point blowouts as well.

[FromWayDowntown]

I don't think there was really much of a rivalry before the 2003 playoffs. In fact, if you ask me, the thing that made it a rivalry was Game 1 of the 2003 WCF; the Spurs were up 15 or so in the 4th quarter, but the Mavs rallied in that crazy game where they made 49/50 free throws to steal HCA. At that point, I think the threat of the Mavericks to the Spurs became real and the urgency on the Spurs end finally matched the urgency that the Mavericks had played with since the 2001 WCSF.

[Venti Quattro]

I think it started in the 2003 WCF. During the 90's the Mavs were sucking and the Spurs were way better than them.

[midnightpulp]

I can't really get into this rivalry since I was born and raised in Southern California. I never had the vitriolic hatred for the Mavs and their fans as I do for the Lakers and their , welfare collecting, frontrunning ilk, but I do appreciate the rivalry from a compe ive standpoint. They are usually the Spurs' main threat aside from the Lakers, so it always feels good to get by them in a playoff series.

That said, a Mavs championship wouldn't bother me in the slightest. If the Spurs flame out this Spring, I'll be backing the Mavs. Would like to see Dirk win a ring.

[#41 Shoot Em Up]

I don't think there was really much of a rivalry before the 2003 playoffs. In fact, if you ask me, the thing that made it a rivalry was Game 1 of the 2003 WCF; the Spurs were up 15 or so in the 4th quarter, but the Mavs rallied in that crazy game where they made 49/50 free throws to steal HCA. At that point, I think the threat of the Mavericks to the Spurs became real and the urgency on the Spurs end finally matched the urgency that the Mavericks had played with since the 2001 WCSF.

Yea that was an epic game, looked like the Spurs had it in control.
As much as Mavs fans point to Dirks injury as reason we lost that series I have to disagree.

I felt like we weren't good enough at that time to beat the Spurs. Defensively SA was just in another atmosphere

[slayermin]

Its called being in the same division you burrito munching s

You're thinking of LA. You can even get a garbage burrito.

[Hemotivo]

I think it started in 2002-03 when the Mavericks were dominating the Conference and the Spurs came in and stole the Division and the Conference on the last day of the season. They had a playoff series before that but I don't think the Mavs were expected to beat the Spurs. 2002-03 was supposedly the Mavericks year and the Spurs played spoiler in the regular season and playoffs.

this