How did you become a Spurs fan?

[Cane]

Used to move back and forth to SA as a military brat and the Admiral became my favorite player since he was an incredible role model on and off the court. Then there's the incredible Duncan-era when the Spurs became synonymous with winning, professionalism, and a team-first mentality while still usually working with less compared to powerhouse payrolls yet finding talent such as Manu and TP.

[lefty]

When I was a kid...my older brother collected baseball/basketball cards. So when I was around 10 years old...my mom bought me my first pack of cards at a Flea Market. I opened up the pack, looked through the cards, and gave them to my brother because I had no idea who anybody was. He then told me there was a card worth $50 in this pack. I thought I had just won the lottery. It was David Robinson's Hoops rookie card. Been a Spurs fan ever since that day.....and I couldn't of picked a better organization.

i got two shiny tim duncan rookie cards as a kid. my brother said i could either have the tim duncan or keith van horn rookie cards, not both. suffice to say life would be much more disappointing if i had chosen keith van horn.

I actually live in Florida...I was always a big sports fan and listened to alot of AM radio at nite..especially WCAU 1210 in Philly...one night while scanning the dial I came upon WOAI 1200..this was late 1976..Spurs had just entered the NBA...then Spurs announcer Terry Stembridge caught my ear..BEST ANNOUNCER EVER..I became a big fan..I believe James Silas sat in on a few games..he was sidelined with a leg injury..became a HUGE George Gervin fan..really liked Larry Kenon as well...

[ElNono]

1995, while living in Portland, OR. That '95 team had it all, and I thought they would go all the way. DRob was so much class. I was hooked then. Then I left the US for about 3 years and lost interest a bit as it was hard to follow them from afar back then. When I came back to America in 1999 I reconnected again, just in time to celebrate #1. When they signed up Manu I became a rabid fan and obsessed, which basically means I was ready to sign up in Spurstalk

[bigzak25]

David Robinson.
Terry mings.
Sean Elliott.
Willie Anderson.
Rod Strickland.

True fan since 1989.

[slick'81]

my dad was a bball junkie he played in hs and coached a bit he always taught me the game.

i grew up watching the spurs i can remember with my dad going to the final regular season game in hemisphere,being in the alamo dome when the water cannons went off v the warriors and being from sa its easy being a spur fan

[scottspurs]

David Robinson.

[Shifty]

My brother, a Laker fan, had a Willie Anderson poster that included the profile photo of everyone else on the team (1989-1990 I believe). Then I saw David play...

[timtonymanu]

Around 2004 I wanted to get into watching the NBA since I played ball and played nba street. Started out as a Laker bandwagoner but they got owned in the finals by detroit that year and I hated the way kobe and shaq acted.

Then my cousin (a laker hater/spurs fan) told me to watch a "real" team. So I watched his tapes and saw Tim Duncan and I became a fan. Then I started to be impressed by Parker and Manu. I also liked Bowen and Horry. Luckily for me, the Spurs won the season I started watching them. As every season went by, my love grew for the Spurs. I started studying their history during the Iceman, DRob era. Overall, I was impressed by how the Spurs handled themselves. They were so classy unlike Kobe and Shaq.

[silverblk mystix]

I loved watching Gervin play. But it was in the 78-79 playoffs that I became a die-hard fan. The Spurs went up 3-1 on the Bullets and, as everyone knows, eventually lost the series. In the seventh game, the Spurs were playing well and looked like they were in control. Then the lights in the arena mysteriously went out, and killed the Spurs' momentum. (Remind anyone of New Orleans a couple of seasons ago?)

The score got really tight, and near the very end the refs made a terrible call against the Spurs. And by terrible, I mean "turrible Kinny". It seemed to me that the deck was just stacked too strongly against the Spurs. It was the first time I was ever really outraged about a basketball game.

The Spurs coach, Doug Moe, looked at the film and it was a truly horrible call. He raised about it in the press, and drew a big fine from the league. The Spurs fans came together and collected money to pay the fine, which I thought was great. Then Moe had the bank send the money to the league office... in pennies. That pretty much capped it for me. The underdog team, the loyal fans, and the coach that paid his fine and said "screw you" at the same time. I said, "Thats MY team."

I remember that game-that series...

I was at the game at the Hemisfair Arena and as the game ended...(the Spurs had just taken a 3-1 series lead)the house announcer says over the PA, ``ladies and gentlemen-please stay off of the court...we will be needing it for THE NBA FINALS!''

everyone cheered--- --we were going to the NBA finals....

the ER jinxed it...sure enough...the bullets came back and I still remember that infamous game where the spurs were rolling---about to clinch the series---and---the lights went out--- !

but that was NOT all...that HEAD Jake O'donnell---completely went in nutz and started calling fouls on the spurs---you would not believe that ---3 or 4 or 5 OFFENSIVE fouls in a row---

Bullets came back and won the series---it was exactly the way that the Lakers win nowadays...

at that time---the spurs had been in the NBA less than 10 years and there WAS NO WAY---that the old school NBA was going to allow the upstart ABA spurs go to the NBA finals...it would have embarrased a lot of people who had fought AGAINST the NBA allowing ABA teams to join the NBA...and also there were a LOT of people who had pronounced that the ABA was INFERIOIR basketball and in no way on the NBA level---and here were the Spurs --about to go to the FINALS!

some things cannot be forgotten...

yeah I am a long time spurs fan...

[Russo21]

It was 1997 and i was new to Basketball, starting to play at school and follow it. My friends were mainly Knick fans or bulls fans and i'd known a little bit about basketball from the 92 and 96 Dream Teams etc. and i really wanted to know more about it.

I went to the local shop and picked out a "One on One" Magazine. On the front cover were the "Men in Black" David Robinson and Tim Duncan wearing shades. I had known a little bit about The Admiral and the article was just fantastic. Being young a loved the photos aswell, they were awesome I still have it at my folks house all these years later. I read about how much of a nice person Robinson was and they were saying how much of a nice guy tim was and about his mum, swimming and his psychology degree etc and that Tim was destined to be a great one and at that moment after reading the article i logged onto nba.com and spent all my money on a duncan jersey and plastered spurs posters in the magazine all around my room. Tim has been my idol ever since.

I remember the last sentence of the article like i read it yesteday...

"For San Antonio Spurs fans, the sins of the past have been forgiven... Tim Duncan is in Town"

I remember thinking to myself, wow, this guy seems like he's going to be awesome and hes never even played a game. Been a die hard Spurs fan ever since, amazing article I am so glad to have become a fan. I fell in love with Tim, David, the spurs and the whole organisation and have bled black and silver ever since They've never let me down

I know some of you might say "oh, a bandagon fan" But i was lucky enough to have started following basketball at that exact time and buying that exact magazine, if i decided to follow the nba a month earlier and if i bought a different magazine who knows what would have been, like i was destined to be a spurs fan I couldn't be happier.

Tim Russo

[Texas_Ranger]

In 99 Friend told me that the Spurs were champs. Back then I knew just about Jordan and the Bulls, I think I didn't even know any other team. So I got one magazine and there was Tim Duncan in it, and I just liked his picture and from then on I'm a Spurs fan.

[lowdown]

I was born in SA - lived in Leon Valley & attended Oak Hills Terrace elementary school. I followed and attended games when the IceMan was playing and Doug Moe was the coach. I've lived on the east coast and now live in L.A. (since '88) and always - and I mean always represented the Spurs. I actually attended the 4th game in which the Lakers swept the Spurs back in the 2000-01 season. GSH, I remember that series - back when the Spurs were in the East - and I hated Unseld 'cause it seemed like he fouled on every play. I remember Elvin Hayes doing his thing but it seemed like Wes was the go to guy against the Spurs. In those days we always were frustrated that there wasn't enough toughness inside until Artis Gilmore arrived. Unfortunately he was much older by that point.

[Xevious]

Born and raised in San Antonio. Went to many a game at the ol' Hemisphere when I was a kid.

[Vic Petro]

I am the son of immigrants. My parents came to New York from Armenia in 1972. My Dad couldn't tell you the difference between a slam dunk and a home run. So I was not grandfathered into any team or any basketball allegiance whatsoever.

Raised in Knicks country - you could see the Manhattan skyline from my North Jersey apartment building. If you weren't a Knicks fan, you were surely a Nets fan.

At about 10 years old, there is tremendous pressure to conform. This is particularly true if you are from an ethnic household. At home, things are one way. At school, things are completely different - and young kids hate feeling different. Most just went with the Nets/Knicks/Jets/Giants/Yankees/Mets combination because it was an easy way to fit in.

I joined baseball for the first time when I was 10 at the urging of a friend. I had never watched a baseball game, thrown a baseball or even held one in my hand. But it seemed like something American kids did and it sure looked fun, so I joined.

In preparation, I started watching some games on television. I always admired how players would run so hard to 1st base that they couldn't stop. They were going so fast, they had to run through the bag. I told myself when I got into a game, I was going to do that and be really cool.

1st game, little league. I'm up in a pinch hitting role. I can't wait to hit the ball and make that run to first. 4 straight balls later, I was standing at 1b, lamenting my missed opportunity. Only then another opportunity arose...2nd base was right in front of me. I could just do the same thing at 2b, of course! So sure enough the next batter hits a clean single to the outfield, and I'm getting the big "hold up" sign from the 3b coach. But I'm running so fast, there's no stopping me. I hit 2b well ahead of the throw, but I keep going a few steps as I slow my gait, completely unaware that this is only allowed at 1b. I take a leisurely stroll back to 2b, all smiles. After kicking the ball around a bit, the CF got the ball back to the SS, who couldn't believe his good fortune that a buffoon such as myself hadn't caught on that my entire team was frantically screaming at me to get back to the bag. His glove touched my chest and I was out, and we lost, and I sucked.

I sucked bad. I didn't know the rules or the fundamentals or anything. Those kids let me have it, and rightfully so for how terrible I was. But I wanted so badly to beat them - at something - that a sports obsession was born. I refused to side with them and their Knics/Nets/Jets/Giants/Yankees/Mets affiliations and decided I was going to look for my own separate rooting interests. I was a free agent.

I remembered watching the NCAA tournament a couple of years prior. There was a player - David Robinson - who was built unlike any other person I'd ever seen. He was tall, lean, fast, strong, agile, explosive, intelligent, thoughtful. Most of all, he was different, like me. No one was paying attention to David Robinson in 1990 New Jersey. I identified with that and I identified with him.

Admittedly, I also thought the silver and black was pretty darn snazzy.

Like everyone else I can't imagine having lucked into choosing a better organization. When Pop took over, I thought he was a tyrant pushing Bob Hill out in a year where the whole team got hurt. But him and RC built an empire, and I must say of all the teams I chose as a 10 year old, the Spurs are by far the greatest pleasure to root for. We don't realize how good we have it.

The franchise's greatest mistake was the turquoise and pink color scheme. My it never return.

[Leonard Curse]

I have a good story on why I'm a spurs fan. So about 15 years ago-ish, I had this crazy drunk night in Vegas. At least I think it was crazy, I do remember getting drunk, but that's about it. Anyways, I wake up the next day with a terrible hangover, I look around and I'm in the middle of the desert!

So I wandered in the desert for a couple hours and then I find myself face to face with the biggest coyote I've ever seen. I'm still hung over, I'm tired, I'm dehydrated, I figure I look pretty easy for the coyote so I just wave it on to kill me. As it approached the coyote opened up it's arms and hugged me! Then it took me into it's cave, called a cab and we've been buddies ever since. Turns out the coyote vacations about 15 miles outside Vegas in the summer and lives in San Antonio during the season. Fun fact! My main source of Spurs information. He's so sneaky getting around the building that he can just listen in on anything. He's also a really good texter, which is weird with those big thumbs.

[Leonard Curse]

im 2yrs younger than my brother and so when i was born he liked the spurs but was kind of a band wagoner so when i got around 5 i was in all sorts of sports and got to see Drob a whole bunch he picked me up when i was a little kid and started messing w/my hair haaha i was a huge spurs fan when they would lose i would cry and get really pissed .

ive been going to spurs games sice the hemisphere,alamodome,now at&t center. i was little so dont hate but i loved Dennis rodman when he came you guys remember when he threw the mic on the floor after he made his introduction speech at the dome????? or when the spurs owned the bulls during the regular season and MJ would get pissed cause we had his number here ( not by stopping mj but by stopping the team). anyway i was born w/the spurs and im going to die a spurs fan!

[Leonard Curse]

I am the son of immigrants. My parents came to New York from Armenia in 1972. My Dad couldn't tell you the difference between a slam dunk and a home run. So I was not grandfathered into any team or any basketball allegiance whatsoever.

Raised in Knicks country - you could see the Manhattan skyline from my North Jersey apartment building. If you weren't a Knicks fan, you were surely a Nets fan.

At about 10 years old, there is tremendous pressure to conform. This is particularly true if you are from an ethnic household. At home, things are one way. At school, things are completely different - and young kids hate feeling different. Most just went with the Nets/Knicks/Jets/Giants/Yankees/Mets combination because it was an easy way to fit in.

I joined baseball for the first time when I was 10 at the urging of a friend. I had never watched a baseball game, thrown a baseball or even held one in my hand. But it seemed like something American kids did and it sure looked fun, so I joined.

In preparation, I started watching some games on television. I always admired how players would run so hard to 1st base that they couldn't stop. They were going so fast, they had to run through the bag. I told myself when I got into a game, I was going to do that and be really cool.

1st game, little league. I'm up in a pinch hitting role. I can't wait to hit the ball and make that run to first. 4 straight balls later, I was standing at 1b, lamenting my missed opportunity. Only then another opportunity arose...2nd base was right in front of me. I could just do the same thing at 2b, of course! So sure enough the next batter hits a clean single to the outfield, and I'm getting the big "hold up" sign from the 3b coach. But I'm running so fast, there's no stopping me. I hit 2b well ahead of the throw, but I keep going a few steps as I slow my gait, completely unaware that this is only allowed at 1b. I take a leisurely stroll back to 2b, all smiles. After kicking the ball around a bit, the CF got the ball back to the SS, who couldn't believe his good fortune that a buffoon such as myself hadn't caught on that my entire team was frantically screaming at me to get back to the bag. His glove touched my chest and I was out, and we lost, and I sucked.

I sucked bad. I didn't know the rules or the fundamentals or anything. Those kids let me have it, and rightfully so for how terrible I was. But I wanted so badly to beat them - at something - that a sports obsession was born. I refused to side with them and their Knics/Nets/Jets/Giants/Yankees/Mets affiliations and decided I was going to look for my own separate rooting interests. I was a free agent.

I remembered watching the NCAA tournament a couple of years prior. There was a player - David Robinson - who was built unlike any other person I'd ever seen. He was tall, lean, fast, strong, agile, explosive, intelligent, thoughtful. Most of all, he was different, like me. No one was paying attention to David Robinson in 1990 New Jersey. I identified with that and I identified with him.

Admittedly, I also thought the silver and black was pretty darn snazzy.

Like everyone else I can't imagine having lucked into choosing a better organization. When Pop took over, I thought he was a tyrant pushing Bob Hill out in a year where the whole team got hurt. But him and RC built an empire, and I must say of all the teams I chose as a 10 year old, the Spurs are by far the greatest pleasure to root for. We don't realize how good we have it.

The franchise's greatest mistake was the turquoise and pink color scheme. My it never return.

thats a really good story i enjoyed that and yep i had it pretty darn hard myself growing up, youre right about the black and white uni's i really loved them those warmups though my god hahah i thought taco cabana was taking over the spurs w/those gay colors but hey it was the 90's it was all about the fuschia/teal and black baby

[TDMVPDPOY]

start following basketball when i was 8yrs old back in the 90s, i was more of a patrick ewing fan cause i got his shoes and a poster on the wall, then i kept on watchin him keep on gettin posterizing by jordan, pissed me off, even though i was going against the trend of hating jordan/bulls worshippers...

played bball, saw a friend had a robinson jersey, he told me check him out on one of these bball cards, to my surprise it was a nba hoops/skybox card david best, the ripped muscles just took my breath away...then i started reading news and watchin highlights of the spurs for anything david robinson related...93/45-95/96 i was a robinson fan...

then tim duncan came along, rest is history....

[Greg Oden]

You all could've told the truth about it and said in 1997 when the Spurs landed Duncan.

[benefactor]

I'm lazy, so here...

I live in Tyler(80mi east of Dallas), so I didn't know the Spurs existed until I became a teenager. The Mavericks and Cowboys are deities around here, so as a kid that is who I rooted for. When I was in high school I was really close with my cousin who is a huge Rockets fan...and with my disdain for the Cowboys and thier fans growing and my family ties in Houston I started cheering for the Houston teams. I watched in awe as the Dream dominated the league through the championship years. This gave me a true appreciation for great post players. But at most, I was still basically a casual fan.

I started following the Spurs a little bit when Duncan was drafted and I was excited for them when they won the le in '99. With my appreciation for great post play, it was natural for me to enjoy both Duncan and Robinson. I casually watched all three Texas teams in the early 2000's but the combination of the run and gun and Cowboys fans pushed me further and further away from the Mavs. I found myself spending more time following the Spurs due to the way they played and how they carried themselves with class. Between the le in '03 and the heartache of May 13th, 2004, I was cemented. For the first time in my life I had become a truly committed fan that lived and died by a team...and it has been that way every since.

[LegendaryFan44]

Silverblk...u r so right about that Bullets series..NBA refs contolled that way way before Tim D. exposed it in his book.

[ohmwrecker]

As a kid, I was always more of a fan of certain players than I was of any one team. I liked the 76ers because Dr. J was my favorite player. I also liked George Gervin because he was so smooth and cool and on a Texas team. I had the "Iceman" poster on my closet door. I am loathe to admit, I also liked the showtime Lakers. My dad was a big Celtics fan and I would root for whatever team was playing against them just to make the game more interesting. Plus, the Celtics were nerds.
As the Lakers/Celtics rivalry fizzled out I, naturally gravitated toward the Spurs. David Robinson was the guy who cemented my commitment. I still liked other teams (mostly the Sonics), but the Spurs became my favorite team and their success and failure effected me the most. That feeling has just intensified over the years as the Spurs have become one of the most successful franchises in sports history. I feel like I have suffered and celebrated with the team as a fan to the point where, for me, the Spurs are the only team that matters. I don't really have favorite teams in other sports.

[wildbill2u]

I became a fan of the Spurs when I first learned how to play basketball.

I am a short statured guy, so obviously it pissed me off when I was always picked last to play. I would spend hours and hours playing basketball, eating enough leather that I would a shoe factory every time I went to the bathroom. Sometimes I would come home at 4am during a school night.

I remember my father taking me to a few Spurs games when I was younger and didn't understand the game at all, and I asked him to take me to help me learn the game better. Needless to say the Spurs inspired me and I worked at my game harder than ever. Soon enough, the tasty leather snack became needles thrown right into the eyes of my much taller defenders. From that moment on I respected the Spurs and admired them for inspiring me to do the impossible. The little market of San Antonio was dominating the much larger franchises and it did my heart good. I soon fell completely in love with the franchise.

My stature as a Spurs fan was solidified after I joined the military with my comrades being mostly Lakers fans. Words flew and at the end of the day, the Spurs toppled the 3peat Lakers. Tears of a Lakers fans are glorious to witness. Especially at the hands of the small market team like the Spurs.

Started going to games the first season when they were back and forth and then bought season tickets on floor level behind the bench for $5.00 per game. Those were the days.

[Big P]

Born & live in SA....went to see the Spurs at Hemisfair Arena in 1978 with my dad...since then, I bleed black & silver!

[Anonymous Cowherd]

I became a fan of the sport 6 months ago. I always quite liked the idea of playing basketball, and when it was televised in the Olympics (In the UK that's the only time it's televised before 11pm!) I watched a bit and liked what I saw.

Then I was over in the States because my girlfriend lives over here (in Florida) and saw a bit on TV. I decided I'd try following it and watching it for a while, see if it stuck with me. It did.

So I knew to be a fan I'd need a team. The Spurs were obvious: 1)My favourite player was already Manu Ginobili from seeing him play for Argentina 2)I'm a massive Spurs - the football team - fan.

I didn't even know they'd ever won a championship! In my mind they were a pretty 'small-time' team! How wrong I was