The San Antonio Spurs have won five NBA championships in franchise history. Entering the 2019-20 season, Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich had guided the team to the postseason a record 22 straight seasons.
Popovich's first full season as head coach of the Spurs was back in 1997-98. San Antonio won 56 games during the regular season but lost to the Utah Jazz in the Western Conference Semifinals.
However, the very next season, the Spurs won their first title in franchise history and a dynasty was born.
The Spurs' last championship came back in 2014 when the team defeated LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and the Miami Heat in the Finals. That 2013-14 Spurs team just so happens to be the best squad in San Antonio franchise history.
After blowing the 2013 Finals against the Heat, the Spurs were a down bunch during that offseason. All they had to do was hit free-throws and grab a rebound in Game 6 of the 2013 Finals and they would have won the title.
Instead, Miami shooting guard Ray Allen hit one of the biggest shots in Finals history in Game 6 to send the contest into overtime, where the Heat wound up winning. Miami then won Game 7 to capture the ring, sending the Spurs home heartbroken.
Being that close to winning the championship and then throwing it all away can be too traumatic of a loss for some teams to get over. However, led by Tim Duncan, Kawhi Leonard, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Gregg Popovich, the 2013-14 Spurs weren't going to succumb to adversity.
San Antonio began the 2013-14 campaign an impressive 15-5 through the first 20 games. Their first regular-season matchup against the Heat came in January and it didn't end well for the Spurs. They lost 113-101 down in South Beach.
However, when the Heat came to San Antonio in March, the Spurs won in blowout fashion, sending a clear message to LeBron and the Heat that this team was different than the 2013 group which choked.
San Antonio finished the regular season with a remarkable record of 62-20. They had the best record in the NBA and were ready to atone for what happened in 2013.
The 2014 playoffs got off to a rough start for the Spurs, though. They needed seven games to defeat the Dallas Mavericks in the first round, causing some pundits to question whether this Spurs team had what it took to win it all.
Fortunately, San Antonio got its act together in the second round. The Spurs took care of Damian Lillard, LaMarcus Aldridge and the Portland Trail Blazers in five games, setting up a Western Conference Finals matchup against superstars Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Behind 17.8 points and 10.2 rebounds a game from Duncan, San Antonio beat the Thunder in six games to get back to the Finals. Now, the real challenge awaited.
LeBron, Wade and Bosh had already gotten the best of the Spurs once. Was San Antonio going to get its revenge or falter once again against The Big Three for the whole world to see?
Game 1 in San Antonio said a lot about where the Spurs were mentally compared to last season's Finals. The Spurs won 110-95.
Game 2 was the only contest where the Heat remotely looked comfortable in the series. They won 98-96 to steal home-court advantage and some San Antonio fans started to get a little worried.
Suddenly, the pressure was on the Spurs. They were going back to Miami, a place where their 2013 fears would need to be vanquished for the team to win the ring.
Not only did the Spurs win Game 3 by a final score of 111-92, but they won the next two games in convincing fashion as well to win the championship altogether.
San Antonio won Game 4, 107-86, and Game 5 by a final count of 104-87.
Leonard took home Finals MVP after averaging 17.8 points, 6.4 rebounds and 2.0 assists. More importantly, Kawhi played phenomenal defense on LeBron, who had 19 turnovers in the five-game series.
Duncan and Popovich captured their fifth title together, while Parker and Manu got their fourth. The Spurs completed their magical season by accomplishing the goal they set out at the start of training camp.
Sure, winning the 2014 championship was great, but San Antonio wanted the team from the East to be the Heat and no one else. They had to make up for what they failed to do in the 2013 Finals.
The 2013-14 Spurs are tied for third in San Antonio history for regular-season wins with 62. However, that championship over the Heat means more than anyone can express in numbers or words.
The emotions which Duncan displayed after winning the title summed it up perfectly.
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