Spurs: How hard is it to win back to back les?

**KobeOwnsDuncan** · 03-05-2016

That's the theory. It's also the reality. Repeating is really hard.

For instance, the greatest active coach, Gregg Popovich has NEVER repeated. Not even close. In five tries, the Spurs got to the 1st round (2015), WCF (2008), 2nd round (2006), 2nd round (2003), and 1st round (1999). This means of course the exact same is true for Tim Duncan, plus Tony Parker and Manu Ginobelli. The Bird-McHale-Parish Celticsnever repeated. The Julius Erving and Moses Malone (RIP)*76ersnever repeated.*Magic*Johnson, only repeated once. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, only one repeat. In the legendary 80's with Bird, Magic and Dr. J fighting it out, repeating was unheard of. In 1986, Coach*Pat Riley guaranteed a repeat*and pulled it off. The Kareem-MagicLakers*were the first team in 18 years to repeat.*The team reportedly pulled him off the stage the next year to prevent him from guaranteeing a threepeat, but he still officially copyrighted "Threepeat" in anticipation.Of the 50 Greatest NBA Players (1996 edition), 9 never won championships, 16 won only one, and only 11 total managed to repeat as champions. *Of the 10 Greatest NBA Coaches (same edition), only 5 of them repeated.The two most recent repeats have been the 2013 Heat, who were 10 seconds from losing to the Spurs in the Finals, and the 2010 Lakers, who were down double digits to the Celtics in Game 7. *There hasn't been a convincing repeat since the 2001 Lakers.How Often Do (Non-Phil Jackson)*Teams Repeat?

Here is a good sound bite I've just made up. No NBA team has EVER repeated without one of Michael Jordan,*Kobe Bryant,*LeBron James, Magic Johnson, Bill Russell, Isiah Thomas, Hakeem Olajuwon or George Mikan. (@NoWaveCoffee reminded me I forgot Hakeem in the first draft... I will do ten dream shakes as penance.)

Let's get into the actual numbers now.

Let's look at champions since the 1971 Finals. For the moment, let's exclude Phil Jackson coached teams, because as you probably know, he is a huge anomaly.

Since 1971, there have been 35 champions not coached by Phil.Only 4 of them (11 %) made it back to the finals and won.8 of them (23 %) actually made it back to the Finals, but then lost.So 12 out of 35 (34 %) made it back to the Finals, but those teams had a grim 4-8 record once there.

**Thread** · 03-05-2016

I remember that time when I lost count of our back-to-backs. Kool set me straight. He toted up the cyphers and I was able to see the forest for the trees.

SF doesn't have the quandary. They got 5, one-by-one. That 5th they won twice. And they had that every other year thingy they were so proud of. They were always up on a pedestal:::"We don't rape." They raped. "We don't sleep with each other's wives." They slept with each other's wives. "Our superstar is happily married." The Duncan's got divorced. "Our front office doesn't drive around Bexar County three sheets to the wind." Their GM is a convicted drunk driver.

They ain't nothin' special. Just as a crooked as a dog's hind leg.

**DMC** · 03-05-2016

**LkrFan** · 03-05-2016

Originally Posted by Thread

I remember that time when I lost count of our back-to-backs. Kool set me straight. He toted up the cyphers and I was able to see the forest for the trees.

SF doesn't have the quandary. They got 5, one-by-one. That 5th they won twice. And they had that every other year thingy they were so proud of. They were always up on a pedestal:::"We don't rape." They raped. "We don't sleep with each other's wives." They slept with each other's wives. "Our superstar is happily married." The Duncan's got divorced. "Our front office doesn't drive around Bexar County three sheets to the wind." Their GM is a convicted drunk driver.

They ain't nothin' special. Just as a crooked as a dog's hind leg.

**LkrFan** · 03-05-2016

Dream repeated. Jim never did. Ouch.

**ambchang** · 03-05-2016

Originally Posted by Thread

I remember that time when I lost count of our back-to-backs. Kool set me straight. He toted up the cyphers and I was able to see the forest for the trees.

SF doesn't have the quandary. They got 5, one-by-one. That 5th they won twice. And they had that every other year thingy they were so proud of. They were always up on a pedestal:::"We don't rape." They raped. "We don't sleep with each other's wives." They slept with each other's wives. "Our superstar is happily married." The Duncan's got divorced. "Our front office doesn't drive around Bexar County three sheets to the wind." Their GM is a convicted drunk driver.

They ain't nothin' special. Just as a crooked as a dog's hind leg.

It's about winning the last game in the playoffs. Ow it's about b2b

**DMC** · 03-05-2016

Originally Posted by ambchang

It's about winning the last game in the playoffs. Ow it's about b2b

Just Gabby qualifying championships.

**Arcadian** · 03-05-2016

Originally Posted by KobeOwnsDuncan

That's the theory. It's also the reality. Repeating is really hard.

For instance, the greatest active coach, Gregg Popovich has NEVER repeated. Not even close. In five tries, the Spurs got to the 1st round (2015), WCF (2008), 2nd round (2006), 2nd round (2003), and 1st round (1999). This means of course the exact same is true for Tim Duncan, plus Tony Parker and Manu Ginobelli. The Bird-McHale-Parish Celticsnever repeated. The Julius Erving and Moses Malone (RIP)*76ersnever repeated.*Magic*Johnson, only repeated once. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, only one repeat. In the legendary 80's with Bird, Magic and Dr. J fighting it out, repeating was unheard of. In 1986, Coach*Pat Riley guaranteed a repeat*and pulled it off. The Kareem-MagicLakers*were the first team in 18 years to repeat.*The team reportedly pulled him off the stage the next year to prevent him from guaranteeing a threepeat, but he still officially copyrighted "Threepeat" in anticipation.Of the 50 Greatest NBA Players (1996 edition), 9 never won championships, 16 won only one, and only 11 total managed to repeat as champions. *Of the 10 Greatest NBA Coaches (same edition), only 5 of them repeated.The two most recent repeats have been the 2013 Heat, who were 10 seconds from losing to the Spurs in the Finals, and the 2010 Lakers, who were down double digits to the Celtics in Game 7. *There hasn't been a convincing repeat since the 2001 Lakers.How Often Do (Non-Phil Jackson)*Teams Repeat?

Here is a good sound bite I've just made up. No NBA team has EVER repeated without one of Michael Jordan,*Kobe Bryant,*LeBron James, Magic Johnson, Bill Russell, Isiah Thomas, Hakeem Olajuwon or George Mikan. (@NoWaveCoffee reminded me I forgot Hakeem in the first draft... I will do ten dream shakes as penance.)

Let's get into the actual numbers now.

Let's look at champions since the 1971 Finals. For the moment, let's exclude Phil Jackson coached teams, because as you probably know, he is a huge anomaly.

Since 1971, there have been 35 champions not coached by Phil.Only 4 of them (11 %) made it back to the finals and won.8 of them (23 %) actually made it back to the Finals, but then lost.So 12 out of 35 (34 %) made it back to the Finals, but those teams had a grim 4-8 record once there.

This is your defense mechanism against knowing that Duncan is superior. I understand. This is the mental gymnastics you have to go through to save your delusions. You've become fixated on the few meaningless, arbitrary achievements than Kobe has achieved and Duncan hasn't, just so you can point to them like a toddler screaming, "See?! I get to win too!!"

I've got you all figured out. You're nothing but a lab rat in my experiments on social psychology.

And a got.

**Mitch** · 03-05-2016

KOD preaching the message that spurfans ignore, tbh. Winning is hard, repeating is exponentially harder.

That's why the best franchise of each decade in the modern era repeated at least once.

80s - Lakers & Magic
90s - Bulls & Jordan
00s - Lakers & Shaq + Kobe
10s - TBD, Heat & Lebron so far

**hater** · 03-05-2016

Originally Posted by Thread

I remember that time when I lost count of our back-to-backs. Kool set me straight. He toted up the cyphers and I was able to see the forest for the trees.

SF doesn't have the quandary. They got 5, one-by-one. That 5th they won twice. And they had that every other year thingy they were so proud of. They were always up on a pedestal:::"We don't rape." They raped. "We don't sleep with each other's wives." They slept with each other's wives. "Our superstar is happily married." The Duncan's got divorced. "Our front office doesn't drive around Bexar County three sheets to the wind." Their GM is a convicted drunk driver.

They ain't nothin' special. Just as a crooked as a dog's hind leg.

There's some truth to this but the whole statement is so weakly built that it would fold like a house of cards on the first blow. Nice try thou

**Thread** · 03-05-2016

Originally Posted by Mitch

KOD preaching the message that spurfans ignore, tbh. Winning is hard, repeating is exponentially harder.

That's why the best franchise of each decade in the modern era repeated at least once.

80s - Lakers & Magic
90s - Bulls & Jordan
00s - Lakers & Shaq + Kobe
10s - TBD, Heat & Lebron so far

Yep, no Spurs in there. Uh, uh. Bereft & barren. 1 at-a-time, like a leaky faucet. Drip, drip, drip. 6 drips and 5 little splashes.

**Mitch** · 03-05-2016

Originally Posted by Thread

Yep, no Spurs in there. Uh, uh. Bereft & barren. 1 at-a-time, like a leaky faucet. Drip, drip, drip. 6 drips and 5 little splashes.

One drip bounced back into faucet, never saw anything like it before

**AlexJones** · 03-05-2016

Originally Posted by Mitch

KOD preaching the message that spurfans ignore, tbh. Winning is hard, repeating is exponentially harder.

That's why the best franchise of each decade in the modern era repeated at least once.

80s - Lakers & Magic
90s - Bulls & Jordan
00s - Lakers & Shaq + Kobe
10s - TBD, Heat & Lebron so far

You can pen in GSW. They're winning at least 3 and repeating once

**Mitch** · 03-05-2016

Originally Posted by AlexJones

You can pen in GSW. They're winning at least 3 and repeating once

Only going to give them the nod when it's all said & done

**Chris** · 03-05-2016

Originally Posted by Arcadian

This is your defense mechanism against knowing that Duncan is superior. I understand. This is the mental gymnastics you have to go through to save your delusions. You've become fixated on the few meaningless, arbitrary achievements than Kobe has achieved and Duncan hasn't, just so you can point to them like a toddler screaming, "See?! I get to win too!!"

I've got you all figured out. You're nothing but a lab rat in my experiments on social psychology.

And a got.

Arc

**Silver&Black** · 03-05-2016

How hard is to make the playoffs?

**DMC** · 03-05-2016

Originally Posted by Silver&Black

How hard is to make the playoffs?

How hard is it to miss the playoffs 4 consecutive times?

**LkrFan** · 03-05-2016

Originally Posted by Mitch

KOD preaching the message that spurfans ignore, tbh. Winning is hard, repeating is exponentially harder.

That's why the best franchise of each decade in the modern era repeated at least once.

80s - Lakers & Magic
90s - Bulls & Jordan
00s - Lakers & Shaq + Kobe
10s - TBD, Heat & Lebron so far

Hopefully Dubs repeat. If they do, I take them over the Heatles.