That was 2000, but 2001 was an extremely eventful offseason too. Spurs had max capspace and dreams of signing Chris Webber until David got pissed and threatened to sign with the Knicks for the midlevel. Embarrassed to admit I was one of many Spurs fans pissed at the news, but thank ing god it worked out the way they did. Then in retrospect, blows me away Pop was able to pry Bruce Bowen from Miami with only a minimum contract and a promise for a bigger extension the next year. Could you imagine if instead of signing Bruce for a song they re-upped a broken diva in DA? Would have made re-signing Manu in 03-04 a nightmare if they had Anderson's dead money tying up the cap, could very well have ended up like Arenas in Golden State. And what the was Riley thinking letting Bruce walk on a minimum deal? But Bruce really wanted to be here.
There were so many ways that 2001 offseason could have been disastrous. Another example was they were in talks with Seattle to trade TP, Malik Rose, Antonio Daniels, and I forget what else for Gary Payton after Seattle was blown away by Parker's first two games in summer league. God Payton fell off fast, Spurs would have gotten one prime year out of Payton in 01-02 instead of all of Tony's prime. And even then rookie Parker really held his own in that first round series against Payton in 01-02. Watching Tony go off Game 3 in Seattle will always be one of my fondest Spurs memories.