The San Antonio Spurs has truly been the epitome of continued excellence in the NBA, despite being considered a small market team.
But all good things do come to end at some point, as the Spurs saw their incredible 22-year consecutive playoff appearance snapped on Thursday, prior to their final 2019-20 NBA regular-season game against the Utah Jazz. The Memphis Grizzlies and Portland Trailblazers earned the right to duke it out in a playoff play-in for the final ticket in the West.
While San Antonio’s streak is now a thing of the past, let’s all sit back and truly appreciate what a great run that was. That remarkable feat yielded a total of six NBA Finals appearances and five Larry O’Brien trophies.
It began with the greatness of “The Admiral” David Robinson and was succeeded by the legendary “Big 3” of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili. Kawhi Leonard was supposed to be the heir apparent, up until his ugly split with the team in 2018.
The last time there was no Spurs team in the NBA postseason was way back in the 1997 playoffs. They finished with an ugly 20-67 record after David Robinson only played eight games due to a broken foot. It did come with a silver lining, though, as they secured the top pick in the 1997 draft which they used on Wake Forest standout Tim Duncan.
Twenty-two years is certainly a long time and a lot has happened since then. Here are 9 of the most significant happenings around the world the last time the Spurs missed the postseason in 1997.
In the NBA:
Michael Jordan was in the middle of his 2nd three-peat
Jordan and the rest of the Chicago Bulls were on their way to their 5th NBA title during the last year that the Spurs failed to crack the top 8 in the Western Conference. As immortalized in the epic ESPN 10-part docuseries “The Last Dance”, MJ and the Bulls finished top-seed in the East (69-13) before coasting by the playoffs and set a date with the Utah Jazz in the best-of-7 Finals. They defeated the Jazz in six games.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwpkPzIcIO0
Kobe Bryant won the Slamdunk Contest in his rookie year
The late superstar Kobe Bryant participated in the All-Star game spectacle back in '97 Gund Arena (now known as Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse) in Cleveland, Ohio. The brash, afroed-youngster famously donned his Purple and Gold Laker warmups in the opening rounds. Bryant bested the likes of Michael Finley and Chris Carr with a one-handed between the legs mid-air slam to secure the trophy.
LeBron James was only 12 years old
The King is now 35 years old and in his 17th year in the NBA. The last time the Spurs were a no-show in the NBA postseason, LeBron James was just tearing it up in AAU-circuits. Fast forward to the 2010s, San Antonio, of course, would eventually be James' Finals adversary on multiple occasions.
In US politics:
Bill Clinton was still president
The United States has had a total of three presidents since the last time the Spurs were not in the playoffs. Disgraced former US President Bill Clinton was in the fourth year of his presidency at the time, which lasted from 1993 to 2001. A year later, he was impeached following the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
In pop culture:
Princess Diana passed away
Arguably the biggest headline that year was the untimely passing of the beloved member of the British royal family, Princess Diana of Wales. The Spurs were already preparing to bounce back for the upcoming season when Princess Diana was tragically killed in a car crash in a Paris tunnel on August 31, 1997.
The Lion King Musical just debuted on Broadway
The esteemed Lion King production just celebrated its 9,000th performance in June last year. The now-iconic musical opened its doors on Broadway at the New Amsterdam Theatre in November 1997. The popular show's longevity is indeed quite similar to how the Spurs managed to stay relevant since that '97 exclusion from the playoffs.
“Titanic” was just released
James Cameron's masterpiece film “Titanic” (based on the sinking of the RMS Titanic) was first shown in cinemas on November 1, 1997. It's highly likely that some of the Spurs players, along with their significant others, also flocked to cinemas to see this epic romance/disaster classic.
The first Harry Potter book just came out
JK Rowling's magic-inspired world first came to existence in June 1997, around the same time the Spurs were already cutting their losses after missing out on the postseason. “Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone” was an instant hit, spawning six more book sequels and a total of eight big-screen fantasy films.
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