Like Tim Duncan's post moves, San Antonio Spurs tickets should be a fundamental of any diehard NBA basketball fan. Duncan is the game's premier player. He does it without flash and with little style, but his game was solid enough to lead the Spurs to four NBA Championships in eight years. The Wake Forest product has plenty of support in point guard Tony Parker and playmaker Manu Ginobili to bring another trophy to the AT&T Center in San Antonio. The Spurs enter this 2008-2009 season, attempting to recover from a disappointing loss in the post-season conference finals to MVP Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers. The San Antonio Spurs look to rebuild and revamp their team towards NBA Finals victory with the acquisition of several draft picks whom they will utilize in the future in addition to several ventures into free agency which should prove fruitful.
The San Antonio Spurs have been a model of consistency since their move in 1973 but the franchise didn't met with immediate success. Arriving in San Antonio after stints as the Dallas Chaparrals and the Texas Chaparrals, the Spurs were an ABA team that reached the playoffs with a 45-39 record only to be ousted by the Pacers after 7 games. That pattern repeated itself in their second year as the Pacers once again ended the Spurs playoff hopes. Year 3, and the last year of the Spurs life in the struggling ABA , gave San Antonio fans a 3 rd place finish but another quick exit from the post-season by the New York Nets.
Joining the NBA in the 1975-76 campaign, the Spurs championed the ABA 's high scoring style. Averaging 115 points a game the Spurs took on new life in the NBA, finishing at 44-38 but continuing their pattern of leaving the dance early as the Boston Celtics knocked them out in a sweep.
The Spurs began to really jell in 1978. Continuing a frenetic scoring pace, San Antonio ran up a league high 119.3 points a game behind George Gervin's NBA scoring title. The playoff jinx was broken as the Spurs won a 7 game series against the Philadelphia 76ers to reach the Easter Conference Finals. The Washington Bullets however, rallied from an almost impossible 3-1 deficit to send the Spurs home as losers. San Antonio continued a run of playoff years from there, reaching the Conference Finals four times before finally breaking through with an NBA Finals appearance and an NBA Championship in 1999.
The seeds for that first NBA Championship were planted the previous season when San Antonio drafted Tim Duncan from Wake Forrest. Along with David Robinson, the 6' 11” Duncan gave the Spurs a powerful 1-2 punch. After a slow start, San Antonio roared through the season by winning 31 games in the stretch and posting a 37-13 season in the strike shortened year. After sending the Timberwolves packing in the first round, San Antonio swept Shaquille O'Neal and the Lakers to reach the Conference Finals. With the series tied at 1-1 and the Spurs trailing the Blazers in Game 3, San Antonio's scoring machine kicked on and the team rallied to win on a last second 3-pointer by Sean Elliot. The momentum propelled the Spurs into a sweep of the remaining games and into the NBA Finals against the New York Knicks. Five games later the Spurs won their first NBA Championship with a 78-77 win in Game 5.
The Spurs repeated as NBA Champions in both 2003, with a six game series against the New Jersey Nets, and 2005 in a seven game series with the Detroit Pistons.
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