How the San Antonio Spurs Tanked for an NBA Championship
The 96-97 NBA season was essentially the "Tim Duncan sweepstake" and the San Antonio Spurs showed us all the best way to tank an NBA season. Before Duncan, the Spurs finished the 1996-97 season with a 20-62 record and the worst defensive record in the NBA. It was bizarre considering they were 59-23 and 62-20 in the couple seasons prior. It was a poor season however that would change the San Antonio Spurs franchise forever.
Spurs' All-Star centre David Robinson was out for most of the season, playing only six games because of back and foot injuries. He did come back in mid-Jan only to sit out the rest of the season. It fuelled many suggestions however that the Spurs made him inactive to have a better shot at drafting Duncan. Three-point specialist Chuck Person missed the entire season because of a back injury and two-time All-Star Sean Elliott also had an injury impacted season playing only 39 games so the Spurs were never going to get far anyway.
Spurs won 62 games in 1994-95 Spurs won 59 games in 1995-96
* David Robinson gets hurt and SAS tank Spurs win 20 games in 1996-97 Spurs win Tim Duncan in 1997 lottery Spurs win 56 games in 1997-98 Spurs win 5 titles and more games over the next 20 years than any other team https://t.co/JT2jJQLFua — Tommy Beer (@TommyBeer) October 31, 2019
Source: Originally posted on Twitter by @TommyBeer
Tim Duncan was awaiting the winner of the draft lottery and was considered one of the best draft picks in a long, long time. The Boston Celtics had a 27.5% chance of the first pick through the draft lottery but the 20-62 Spurs had won the lottery with a 21.6% chance. At this point, the Spurs had never won an NBA championship. The Spurs followed through with the consensus first pick by selecting Tim Duncan with the first pick of the 1997 NBA draft.
This paired Duncan with All-Star centre David Robinson and the Spurs were able to pair him up with superstars like Tony Parker and Manu Ginóbili. Duncan would help create a dynasty, becoming a 15-time All-Star and winning five NBA championships with the Spurs. For those that were lucky enough to watch Tim Duncan in his prime he was an absolute beast and he'd ranked in most peoples top 10 of all time. Duncan averaged 19 points and 10 rebounds per game for 12 seasons in a row.
It was his ability to step up in the playoffs which has him as one of the greatest clutch performers as he averaged 23 points and 12 rebounds in the playoffs, when it mattered most! He was also the ultimate professional and is the exact type of player you'd want as the cornerstone of any franchise.
"In 19 years, Tim Duncan was never late for a practice, workout, or bus. That's a standard of excellence you tend to take for granted." (Monty Williams) pic.twitter.com/0kcZfofUAB
— Coach the Coaches (@WinningCoaches) May 20, 2022
Source: Originally posted on Twitter by @WinningCoaches
The 1996-97 Spurs showed us all just how tanking should be done by being mediocre in one season and were lucky enough to pinch Tim Duncan over the Celtics who had a higher probability of picking up Tim Duncan. Do you agree with tanking?
Many fans and the NBA do not agree and they've introduced anti-tanking measures by finding owners and executives who even hint that it's a good thing. There's also been a flattening of the lottery system by reducing the odds of landing the first pick. Previously the lowest ranked team would have a 25% chance of securing the first pick, the second-worst a 19.9% chance and third-worst a 15.6% chance.
In 2019 the NBA reduced draft lottery odds so that the three worst teams would only have a 14% chance of the top pick. It's fair to say tanking as he knew it has effectively been killed off by the NBA and the 96-97 Spurs will likely remain as the best tanking team in NBA history.
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Well, I must confess that the standards required for these sports have dropped significantly as most players have been blinded by the money they receive as salary. I have nothing to say about the lottery as I have little knowledge about it what I can say is that Tim Duncan's hard work pays off and that's the mark of greatness in any given field.
Money had definitely changed everything. NBA is a business. Almost impossible to find players who will play long careers at only one franchise
Talking about loyalty, Tim Duncan is one of the players that come to my mind.
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Tom Duncan made the Spurs become a dynasty, many say he is the best power forward in history, actually I didn't see his whole career, I was a kid, but what I could observe is that his resources are impressive, playing with his back to the basket he had many fundamentals to score points.
I also like that he was always a super professional, he never imposed his ego before the team, he played for the overall performance and not for his individual performance.
That super professional bit I think was most Important. Both on and off the court, he was the cornerstone of the Spurs franchise and humble enough that it was hard to hate him even for rivals