San Antonio Spurs

The San Antonio Spurs are an American professional basketball team that was founded in 1967 and are based in San Antonio, Texas. The team colors are Black, White and Silver.

The period from 1999 to 2007 is called the Championship era. Duncan and Robinson are called as the Twin towers of the team. During the 1997-98 season, Duncan played well and averaged 21.1 points and 11.9 rebounds per game. The team had a score of 56-26 and thereby broke their own record of 1989-90 for the biggest single season improvement for wins. In the 1999-2000 season, the Spurs had a record of 53-29 and occupied the second place. In both the 2000-2001 and 2001-02 seasons, the Spurs had a record of 58-24. The 2002-03 season was memorable for two reasons. David Robinson had announced that this was his last year and the Spurs had a new arena in the SBC center. From 2003 onwards, Duncan, Parker and Ginobili are called as the Big Three of the Spurs. In the 2003-04 season, they posted a record of 57-25. In the 2004-05 season, the Spurs had the second best record in the Western Conference at 59-23 as well as the best record in the Southwest division. During the post-season, the Spurs defeated the Denver Nuggets 4-1, the Seattle SuperSonics 4-2 and the Phoenix Suns 4-1 and entered the NBA finals. On 23rd June 2005, the won the championship for a third time by defeating Detroit Pistons.

The Dallas Chaparrals changed the arena four times. From 1967 to 1973, it was at State Fair Coliseum and Moody Coliseum. From 1970 to 1971, it was at Tarrant County Coliseum and Lubbock Municipal Coliseum. The San Antonio Spurs changed the arena three times. From 1973 to 1993, it was at HemisFair Arena. From 1993 to 2002, it was at Alamodome. From 2002 onwards, the arena is at AT&T center. This was initially called as SBC Center.

Three players of this team have been included in the Basketball Hall of Famers. These are Dominique Wilkins, Moses Malone and George “The Iceman” Gervin.

The current head coach is Gregg Popovich. The assistant coaches are Don Newman, Chad Forcier, Chip Engelland, Mike budenholzer and Brett Brown. For the 2007-08 season, the team would retain 11 out of the 15 players from the 2006-07 team. The three main players – Ginobili, Parker, Duncan – are under contract till 2010. In the 2007 NBA draft, the Spurs have chosen Tiago Splitter, the Brazilian forward. On 28th June 2007, the Spurs declared that they have bought Austin Toros of the NBA Development League. Now, the Spurs have become the second NBA team to purchase an NBADL team.

Major achievements

4 Championships (1999, 2003, 2005, 2007), 4 Conference titles, 15 Division titles.