About San Antonio Spurs
The franchise was founded in 1967 as Dallas Chaparrals and played in ABA. It went through short period of being renamed to Texans Chaparral’s, eventually settling on San Antonio Spurs in 1973 and joining the NBA in 1976 when ABA-NBA merger occurred making it one of only four previous ABA teams remaining in the NBA.
The team is a very successful one as their five NBA titles are the fourth most in the league’s history. The Spurs are the only NBA team to be either tied or have a winning head to head regular season record against every single active NBA franchise. The franchise missed on playoffs only four times since joining the NBA and they have not missed a single trip to postseason in last 18 years, since they drafted Tim Duncan.
The team is member of Southwest Division in Western Conference and they claimed the championship of it seven times during 11 years of the division’s existence. The team’s colours are silver, black and white and their mascot, named The Coyote was inducted into Mascot Hall Of Fame in 2007. The mascot was also honoured with the NBA Mascot of the Year award in 2014.
The Spurs are coached by one of the greatest basketball coaches of all the time, Gregg Popovich. He’s been coaching the team since 1996 making him the longest tenured coach in all US major sports leagues. He has won five championships, have been named NBA Coach of the Year three times and he holds the record for most consecutive winning seasons in NBA history with 18, ranking third in overall winning seasons.
The franchise’s face is Tim Duncan, very well decorated power forward/center who spent all his professional career with the Spurs since they selected him with overall pick no 1 in 1997 draft. He went onto becoming 5 times NBA champion, three times NBA finals MVP, two times NBA MVP, NBA Rookie of the Year and he also was named NBA Teammate of the Year in 2015, an award introduced to the NBA three seasons ago. While he’s not going to be major contributor to the teams statistic sheets, his experience and leadership is very valuable for the franchise.
In 2015 the team acquired a younger power forward/center LaMarcus Aldridge to assist Duncan on the defensive side of the game as well as providing some scoring input too. Aldridge was named to NBA All-Star game four times and when he left his previous team, the Blazers he did it as an all-time leader of the Blazers in rebounds.
There’s also element of youth within the Spurs, namely in Kawhi Leonard, a small forward who joined the team in 2011 via the trade during NBA draft. He was named NBA Finals MVP in 2014 and a year later he earned himself NBA Defensive Player of the Year despite the fact he was also the team’s leader in points too.
