Older Fans: What Were You Expecting From the 2000 Spurs?

[baseline bum]

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 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.

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.

[Sean Cagney]

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.

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 le IMO but they did match up well with LA during the year if I am correct? They had a winning record vs. them.

[Richie]

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

[SpurPadre]

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.

[BSfromTX]

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

[cool cat]

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 le, 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.

[UNT Eagles 2016]

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

also, we never lost to Portland by 40 or anything close

[daslicer]

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.

[cool cat]

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

[Russ]

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.

[phxspurfan]

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

[barbacoataco]

Lol What was the story w/ Avery and Chucky Brown? 2K New years parties? Never heard those.

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 .

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 le, even with Tim.

Yeah. Elie got old, Sean was never full strength, and Jaren Jackson played over his head in 1999.

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.

[Obstructed_View]

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

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.

[Obstructed_View]

And the Spurs could have won it all if Duncan played. Four les later, I'm okay with Pop's decision.

[TXstbobcat]

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.

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.

[Das Texan]

-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...

.

Bout sums up that little er right there.

Still sickens me how this fan base holds him in such a ing 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 Jaren Jackson, talk about a ing whale.

[daslicer]

-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...

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.

[barbacoataco]

Avery sucked but he played well in 1999. He couldn't shoot, drive to the basket, or play defense. Never should have retired his #.

[Spurtacular]

After the way the Spurs rolled through the '99 playoffs to their 1st le, I expected them to repeat.

Jazz were descending and the Spurs had dismantled Shaq/Kobe in 99. I expected a repeat.

[KaiRMD1]

I thought Duncan was leaving to go to New York. I was also very high during those days

[2centsworth]

Terry Porter fell

[phxspurfan]

Daniels getting into fights playing pickup ball at Homecourt America

[Russo21]

I was expecting the le until Duncan went down. DROB was still awesome, the back court was old and slow as 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.

[Sean Cagney]

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.

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.

Bout sums up that little er right there.

Still sickens me how this fan base holds him in such a ing 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 Jaren Jackson, talk about a ing whale.

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.

[daslicer]

I was expecting the le until Duncan went down. DROB was still awesome, the back court was old and slow as 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.

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.