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Of course.
I'm too young to remember
our team wasn't that bad
Of course.
No, Robinson was hurt and it eventually caused him to retire early in his career IMHO.
Indubitably.
Yes, but not til after the Robinson injury. In some ways, we can thank Karl Malone for Tim Duncan.
Yes and it was one of the best decisions in sports history tbh.
Never!
Yes we did since DRob went down early, we sucked, then he came back for a little in limited play (we went 3-3 with him) and was gone for rest of season. So yeah we just tanked. Season was over.
I am not against tanking in the context the Spurs did it. Lost best player to injury for season, team is almost never in lottery. . .might as well tank for a season. Now I don't like when teams nearly always tank for picks; that's just cheap and wrong. But I don't mind tanking once a decade or once every 5-8 years. Or in our case, once every 30 years.
'Fraid it was, especially after Robinson broke his foot. Pop fired Bob Hill because Hill didn't ask any of his players to play one second of defense, and in those days, defense (and hard defense) was how championships were won.
We totally tanked that year. Pop took over for Hill the same day that Robinson was due to return from his foot issue, and most of the players (including a very vocal Robinson) were ticked off about it, because they liked Hill. Then after Robinson came back, he got hurt again, and that is when Pop tanked the rest of the season. I remember going to games in the Alamodome that season to watch Dominique Wilkins play, because he was the only entertaining part of the team (I think they brought him in late in the season).
Even though we tanked the rest of the season, we still didn't have the most chances for the lottery that year. Boston had the most chances and were expected to get the no.1 pick and choose Duncan. The fact that we got the no.1 pick was genuinely total luck. Pop jumped up and down in the yard outside his house when he heard the news that we got the no. 1 pick. Boston kinda never got over it.
lol yeah and Boston didn't get over it for 10 years
No they didn't tank. Back then the Spurs organization really sucked and had put an incredibly bad team around DRob. When he went down just how bad of a team it was came to light without the Admirals coat tails to ride on. The only other good player was Sean ****** and he got injured too. Even though Avery has his jersey retired because people loved him personally, it can't be overstated just how bad of basketball player he was. In his later years playing next to DRob and TD made Avery look like he belonged in the NBA but he never really did.
I think we just sucked
david could have played the last 20 but at that point it was not worth rushing him back
No - DRob played 6 games, Sean 39.
http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/SAS/1997.html
That team sucked without the two best players
Will Perdue and Del Negro were my favs of the surviving players. They had a bunch of over the hill scorers (Dominique ), head cases (Vernon Maxwell), over the hill guys (Charles Smith), and other people who couldn't shoot (Carl Herrera, a PF who shot 43%).
Avery, DRob,, and Sean were the only long term holdovers. Monty Williams was there for two more years and Vinnie for one more.
It also needs to be noted that Pop wasn't the coach he is now then and it was a learning experience as he tried to get them to play as a team rather than just taking shots.
No. DRob played 6 games, Elliott played 39. If you look at the roster that year http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/SAS/1997.html we had no one.
And even then, people forget the Spurs didn't have the worst record in the league that year. They were only 3rd worst. Vancover had the worst record, followed by Boston.
Hard to say because we were absolute dog without Robinson and Elliott. Would Robinson and Elliott have been held out as long if we had been in playoff contention? I don't how any of us could answer that question.
I never cared for Del Negro but I did like Perdue. He used to work out at the gym I went to and was a nice guy. Although he had zero athleticism. Splitter would look like Ibaka next to Perdue.
David screwed his back up in the Olympics, and then broke his foot 6 games after returning in December. Brook Lopez just missed the season for a broken foot also suffered in December. Brooklyn was still a playoff team with something to play for and didn't bring their bigman back, so it's pretty ludicrous when people think that's an injury the Spurs should have brought David back from the last month of the season.
I was 5. I have no idea. Started watching the Spurs when we went to the Finals in 99.
Spurs fans are some of the dumbest fans in basketball.
No, San Antonio didn't tank, if they were tanking they would not have beaten Denver in the third to last game of the year where it moved San Antonio up one position in the lottery. I remember that season very well, San Antonio had several different lineups and we continually used Dominique Wilkins who was our leading scorer. Pop coached to win games not ping pong balls. This was a horrible team without Robinson, and it showed.
I have yet to see one shred of evidence to prove San Antonio tanked the season.
That year Boston had another lottery pick that turned into either the 5th or 6th pick in the draft. Pitino offered both picks for the #1. I remember Holt quashing that with a statement that under no cir stances would San Antonio trade the #1 pick. Another interesting tidbit about the draft that year: after the first set of ping pong balls gave the Spurs the #1 pick the next 2 sets of ping pong balls also came up with Spurs' combinations.
injuries + a little tankage = Tim Duncan
Can you imagine if we had traded that #1 pick and ended up picking like Van Horn and Antonio Daniels....ahh the horror!
no. spat of injuries, left our roster depleted, and unable to deal. legit.
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