Great ESPN Article on Pop and Duncan

[Jimmy Cobaine]

Amazing how close Pop came to being fired before that Houston game, after they had just been humiliated by Utah on national TV. Not only that, but the Spurs were also seemingly close to trading David Robinson to Portland for Rasheed Wallace. Avery Johnson basically saved Pop's job by coaching that team to the le.

How do you know all this Spurs info?? I think you also said Charles Barkley almost got traded to SA.

[baseline bum]

How do you know all this Spurs info?? I think you also said Charles Barkley almost got traded to SA.

The Robinson for Wallace deal was all over ESPN and sportstalk radio at the time. The Barkley deal being shot down by Red comes from timvp.

[milkyway21]

Pop on the brink of being fired, the Spurs trio David (15 pts, 9 rbds, 3 blocks), A.Johnson (18 pts, 13 assts) & Duncan (23pts, 14 rbds, 5 blocks) delivered against Olojawon, Barkley & Pippen, sending the message & support for Pop was the turn-around.
I think Duncan if he decided to sign with Orlando, might be able to win some championships having Hill & TMac there but I'm glad he remains a Spur & stick with David & Pop.

Nice article. thanks.

[exstatic]

Pop on the brink of being fired, the Spurs trio David (15 pts, 9 rbds, 3 blocks), A.Johnson (18 pts, 13 assts) & Duncan (23pts, 14 rbds, 5 blocks) delivered against Olojawon, Barkley & Pippen, sending the message & support for Pop was the turn-around.
I think Duncan if he decided to sign with Orlando, might be able to win some championships having Hill & TMac there but I'm glad he remains a Spur & stick with David & Pop.

Nice article. thanks.

There was never going to be Duncan, Hill and TMac in Orlando. TMac only signed because they whiffed on Duncan, and had money left. If Tim had signed, it would have been him and a crippled for like 3 years Hill.

[taps]

The other big one is that the Spurs had experience in dealing with the refs ing them... Dallas had such a free ride to the finals that year (from the refs - remember the 50 FT game, Duncan Fouling out when Harris tripped over his own feet and fell into him, at the end of regular time game 7, it's tied, our last chance to score, Manu drives, and gets fouled twice with no call, Duncan goes up and gets the re-bound, and get fouled 3 times himself, also with no calls...). The Mavs basically went into shock when the refs turned against them. They really couldn't deal with the change in the emphasis of the referreeing.

These are the baptisms by fire a team needs to win a championship as a 3 seed and a Finals underdog w/out homecourt advantage. That Finals steeled Dirk's mind and 5 years later Dirk came back with that tunnel vision and flipped on god mode.

[lefty]

" great read"
" hey look guys, a positive article about us, so it'sa good read"