From the bottom of the fish to the playoffs, and then to the championship, this team only took two years, and the "big bet-in-one" operation became the key

As the ultimate goal of each team, it is very difficult to win the NBA championship. This not only requires the team's financial support, but also requires signing suitable players. At the same time, the team's management must be able to endure and add some luck to win the championship. Throughout the entire NBA history, most teams need long-term hard work to have the opportunity to win the championship. Even the great Michael Jordan entered the NBA for 7 seasons before finally winning his first NBA championship.

However, there is such an NBA team, which is an exception. They were still the bottom of the West in the first year, but in the second year, they had already entered the Western Conference semi-finals stage, and in the third year they directly won the coveted championship. This team was the Spurs in 1999. In fact, there are many secrets behind this. Let’s go back to the summer of 1996 together to see how the Spurs worked hard at that time. In the end, it took only 2 years to go from the bottom of the West to become the champion!

1. Hide the main team and strive to win the No. 1 pick.

In the 95-96 season, the Spurs were also an extremely outstanding team. The core of the team at that time was David Robinson, the MVP of the previous year. The "Admiral" not only played 82 games in this season, but also contributed 25 points, 12.2 rebounds, 3 assists, 1.4 steals and 3.3 blocks, which eventually helped the Spurs achieve a record of 59 wins and 23 losses. However, the team still cannot make a breakthrough this year, which has led the team to explore ways to change. They also turned their attention to the 1997 draft. Tim Duncan, who is about to usher in the graduation season in the college basketball world, has announced that he will participate in the 1997 NBA draft. Therefore, in the 1996-97 season, many teams began to play badly in order to get this once-in-a-fifty-year genius, and the Spurs made a decision to compete with Duncan.

The Spurs at that time did make a lot of "work" to get Duncan. Robinson "accidentally" encountered ankle injury this season. In order to be able to recover completely, he directly announced the reimbursement of the season after only 6 games. The team's outside core Sean Elliott also played only 39 games, which also led to a huge loss in the Spurs' strength this season. The team's scoring champion is Dominic Wilkins, who is 37 years old and suffered a major injury. Under the joint "struggle" of the whole team, the Spurs successfully reduced their record from 59 wins in the previous year to 20 wins. It has to be said that the goddess of luck really favored them. In the NBA Draft draw that year, they got the No. 1 pick that changed history and successfully selected Tim Duncan, and a new era began to come.

2. The two towers were officially formed and the team ushered in transformation.

After Duncan successfully joined, many media were very worried, because although Robinson was 33 years old at that time, his overall condition was maintained well. Duncan's arrival is likely to threaten Robinson's core position. However, the Spurs' heritage and culture played a key role in that moment. Robinson took the initiative to abdicate and became Duncan's deputy, and the Spurs' most brilliant "two towers" combination officially debuted. In the 97-98 season, rookie Duncan can already output 21.1 points, 11.9 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 2.5 blocks, while Robinson still maintained a good performance, averaged 21.6 points, 10.6 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 2.6 steals per game. Finally, with the help of the two, the Spurs successfully turned around, winning 56 wins and 26 losses this season, returning to the playoff stage.

There is no doubt that this operation of gambled on Duncan will definitely be recorded in history, because Duncan not only played excellent data, but his contribution on the court is also visible to the naked eye and dominant. After all, as a rookie, he was directly selected into the Best First Team and Best Defensive Second Team of the season. This is a very rare existence even in the entire NBA history. Moreover, in the playoffs, the Spurs also showed certain potential to win the championship. Although they were swept by the Jazz gentleman who later entered the finals in the semi-finals, Duncan, who participated in the playoffs for the first time, could still output 20.7 points, 9 rebounds and 2.6 blocks. Especially when facing Carl Malone, who was considered the number one power forward in NBA history at the time, he was not afraid at all, which also allowed Spurs fans to see hope for winning the championship in the future.

3. When the NBA was suspended, the Spurs seized the opportunity.

At the beginning, we said that winning the championship requires some luck. In the summer of 1998, because the NBA was caught in a labor-management dispute, the player union and the boss's camp were unable to reach an agreement, so the NBA also directly announced the suspension. This is a big vacation for some talented but poor self-disciplined players. People like Sean Camp, Wen Baker, etc. not only fell into carnival all day long, but even when the suspension was about to end, they were still immersed in luxury and their final state declined a lot, which also caused the team to be greatly affected. During this period, the disciplined Spurs were not affected by these things. Most of the players trained spontaneously, so they are also one of the few teams that were not affected by the suspension..

As the saying goes, hard work will gain. With the regular season shortened to 50 games, the Spurs' running-in is even better. Duncan has contributed 21.7 points, 11.4 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 2.5 blocks. Although Robinson's condition has declined, he still has 15.8 points, 10 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.4 steals and 2.4 blocks. In addition, Elliott and Avery Johnson also made great contributions to the outside. In addition, the contributions of Mario Ellie, Malik Ross, Steve Cole and others, they finally achieved an outstanding record of 37 wins and 13 losses in the regular season. And in the playoffs, they were even more powerful. In the West, except for the first round of losing to the Timberwolves, they won all the other games and easily reached the finals. The Knicks staged a Black Eight Miracle in the East and entered the finals as the eighth place in the East. There is a big gap in strength between the two sides. And the result is indeed the case. The Spurs defeated their opponents with a clean and neat 4:1, successfully winning the first championship in team history, and also creating a legendary journey to win the championship.