NBA
OTD in 1999: Spurs Became the 1st ABA Team to Win a NBA Championship
June 25, 1999: Led by Tim Duncan and David Robinson, the San Antonio Spurs became the first former ABA team to win an NBA championship
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The ABA-NBA merger added four teams to the world’s top basketball league, the New York Nets (now Brooklyn Nets), Indiana Pacers, Denver Nuggets, and San Antonio Spurs. Each of these teams found success at various times since 1976. Without a doubt, the most fortunate have been the San Antonio Spurs, the first to reach champion status. The foundations were set with the selection of David Robinson in the 1987 draft and the hiring of HC Gregg Popovich in 1996. The final piece came in 1997 first pick Tim Duncan.
TIM DUNCAN LED THE 1ST FORMER ABA TEAM TO WIN A NBA CHAMPIONSHIP
The San Antonio Spurs enjoyed relative success in the ’90s but like their fellow former ABA members, the Indiana Pacers, had failed to break out of their conference for a Finals berth. Their star David Robinson was among the premiere big men of the era and took them as far as the Western Conference Finals in 1994, but would fall to the eventual champion Houston Rockets. The Spurs would remain a perennial playoff team until the arrival of Tim Duncan in 1997.
The Spurs lost to the Utah Jazz in the second round during Duncan’s rookie season before ascending to the No.1 seed during the ’98-’99 lockout-shortened season. Dominating their conference, they at last broke out of the West. From the East, came the legendary eight-seeded Knicks, the only No.8 seed to ever reach the Finals. The Spurs would prevail in five games to become the first former ABA team to win a championship. It would be Duncan’s first of five titles, and he would win his first of three Finals MVPs.
June 24, 1999: San Antonio #Spurs defeated the Knicks in Game 5 behind Finals MVP Tim Duncan’s 27.4 PPG and 14 RPG to become the very 1st former ABA franchise to win an NBA Championship. This would be the 1st of 5 titles of the Popovich-Duncan dynasty
— Pro Sports Outlook (@PSO_Sports) June 24, 2021
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