San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Top 10 Spurs storylines:
Leonard’s saga tops franchise’s soap opera list
The saga of Leonard leads the team’s soap opera list.
Texas sports fans are no strangers to soap operas thanks in large part to Jerry Jones’ lengthy, often chaotic ownership of the Dallas Cowboys.
Jones’ bombshell firing of legend Tom Landry, his ugly divorce with Jimmy Johnson and the innumerable questionable decisions he’s made as the team’s general manager during its 22-season Super Bowl drought have made the Cowboys one of the longest running dramas in American sports history.
On the other end of the spectrum are the staid Spurs, one of the best run franchises in pro sports, a club long directed by some of the sharpest minds in NBA history (coach Gregg Popovich, general manager R.C. Buford) and blessed with some of the all-time classiest, humble stars (David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker).
Still, the Spurs haven’t been free of controversy or long, drawn-out public dramas. With the Kawhi Leonard saga seemingly nearing an end after he reportedly informed the Spurs he wants to be traded, here’s a look at the top 10 soap operas in franchise history:
10. The Butter Knife Brawl
In perhaps the most intense but also comical fight between payers in franchise history, Walter Berry and All-Star Alvin Robertson squared off dur-
ing the 1987 preseason in a hallway at the Red Lion Village Inn in Missoula, Mont.
The brawl included Robertson slamming Berry to the carpet, Berry poking Robertson in the eye and finally Berry going after Robertson armed with a butter knife. It wasn’t the last time Robertson’s temper got the best of him. During the 21-win 1988-89 season, he got into a screaming match with Larry Brown, a dust-up that led to the Spurs trading him to the Milwaukee Bucks after the season.
9. Bringing Aldridge back from the brink
Throughout much of last summer, LaMarcus Aldridge’s future with the Spurs was in doubt. After an uncomfortable two years in San Antonio in which his marriage with the club was often on the rocks, Aldridge requested a trade, a first for Gregg Popovich.
But just when the relationship seemed to be nearing an end, a heartto-heart meeting with the coach led to a renewal of vows between the parties highlighted by the Texasex agreeing to a threeyear, $73 million contract extension that could keep him in Silver & Black through the 2020-21 season.
8. The Brown-out
Larry Brown coached the Spurs to 56 wins in Robinson’s rookie season, setting a then-NBA record for the biggest turnaround from one season to the next. But he also presided over a firstround playoff loss in 1991 that frustrated McCombs.
In January 1992, with the Spurs sporting a disappointing 21-17 record, Brown asked to be terminated. His departure came after a crazy 72 hours that included a loss at Boston, reports that B.J. “Red” McCombs had first fired then rehired Brown after a heated meeting with players and coaches, and then finally the naming of GM Bob Bass as interim head coach.
7. The bizarre Rodman years
The multicolored hair, body piercings and tattoos they could live with. But Dennis Rodman’s flaunting of team rules, including chronic tardiness for practices, and other oddball, dysfunctional behavior proved too much for his teammates and management, especially club chairman Robert McDermott.
The final straw came when Rodman arrived to work just 30 minutes before an 8 p.m. start for Game 5 of the 1995 Western Conference Finals. Shortly after training camp for the 1995-96 season opened, the Spurs shipped Rodman to the Chicago Bulls for Will Perdue, ending one of the most turbulent stints in club history.
6. Battle of the business titans
It’s largely forgotten now, but spring 1988 was an intriguing, anxiety filled time in San Antonio as McCombs boldly sought controlling interest of the Spurs after a series of disagreements with Angelo Drossos over the club’s direction.
After receiving an initial offer in early April of $40 million for 80 percent control, Drossos began negotiations with Boston businessman Bertram Lee and Houston businessman David Wolff for purchase of the team for $50 million, a maneuver that fanned fears the franchise could be moved. In another twist, Drossos also considered buying the team himself for $44 million before McCombs raised his purchase praise to $47 million. But the deal finally got done, leaving the San Antonio billionaire in control and free to make the major splash of hiring Larry Brown, who brought with him a pair of assistants by the name of Gregg Popovich and R.C. Buford.
5. The Robinson signing saga
It was no slam dunk that David Robinson would sign with the
Spurs after they won the 1987 NBA Draft Lottery and drafted the 7-foot-1 former Navy star first overall. Many in the national media figured he would re-enter the draft after his two-year military obligation rather than sign with smallmarket San Antonio.
In the months after the draft, speculation ran rampant that Robinson preferred to play for an East Coast team. But after what seemed like an interminable wait for Spurs fans, he finally signed in early November after Drossos guaranteed he would never be paid less than the average of the two highest-paid players in the league.
4. Duncan’s flirtation with the Magic
The summer of 2000 was a nervous time for the Spurs and their fans as Tim Duncan contemplated leaving San Antonio to join the Orlando Magic to team with Grant Hill and Tracy McGrady.
The situation got so dicey that Robinson flew back early from a family vacation in Hawaii to help convince his protégé to stay. Duncan admittedly was intrigued about the prospect of heading to the Magic Kingdom until he asked coach Doc Rivers over dinner whether significant others could travel on the team plane and was told no.
Hill recently told ESPN’s Rachel Nichols that Rivers’ reply instantly killed the mood, all but ending Duncan’s recruitment. “He should have just lied and said yes,” Hill said. Shortly after that blunder, Duncan announced he would re-sign with the Spurs, ending a summer soap opera that had the city on edge.
3. Popovich assumes command
With his five NBA championships, 1,197 career wins and 21-year playoff streak, Popovich has made an indelible mark on the game. But Spurs fans and the media heaped scorn upon the then-general manager after he fired coach Bob Hill following a 3-15 start to the 1996-97 season that could easily be blamed on David Robinson missing the first 18 games with a back injury.
Adding to the PR nightmare: It all happened the day Robinson was returning from the injured list. It wasn’t until the Spurs won their first crown in 1999 that fans finally started to forget Popovich’s controversial move.
2. The Iceman’s courtroom drama
The Spurs scored a major coup in January 1974 when the fledgling franchise acquired lithe scoring machine George Gervin from the financially floundering Virginia Squires for $225,000.
But things got complicated when ABA commissioner Mike Storen tried to block the deal to prevent the Squires, who had already dealt Julius Erving to the New York Nets for cash, from destroying their franchise.
Determined to keep Gervin in Bexar County, shrewd Spurs owners McCombs and Drossos stashed the Iceman in a downtown hotel room, instructed him to stay put and then sued Storen and the league. In a master stroke, Drossos made sure the case got tried in San Antonio before a favorable judge, who ruled in the Spurs favor. In terms of skullduggery, nothing compares in franchise history.
1. The tendinopathy tale
No Spurs drama has been laden with more mystery, innuendo, plot twists and frustration than the one that began with the team issuing a simple press release last September announcing Leonard would miss the preseason with a puzzling leg ailment.
From the shadowy “group” advising the two-time All-Star to seek a second opinion to the shade thrown his way by his coach and some of his teammates, this high stakes cliffhanger was one of the league’s top story lines last season and is now dominating the offseason.
Shrouded with secrecy throughout, the story has bedeviled and bewildered fans, media and management more than any other in franchise history. And all signs now point to anything but a happy ending for those praying things could be patched up between the Spurs and Leonard.
Honorable mentions
The bond issue
Determined to move out of the cavernous Alamodome into a basketball-first facility with luxury boxes that would enhance their revenue streams, the Spurs toward the end of the 1990s threatened to move unless they obtained such a venue.
The power play came just three years after investor Peter Holt had fended off a play for the team by the Las Vegasbased Maloof brothers, Joe and Gavin, and bought controlling interest of the franchise from McDermott-headed USAA.
Despite the Spurs’ threats to relocate, Bexar County voters weren’t completely sold on passing a financing plan to build a new arena through bonds backed by hotel-occupancy and rental car taxes.
But doubts about whether it would pass ended when the Spurs defeated the New York Knicks at the Alamodome to claim their first NBA title.
About a week later, the bond issue won in a landslide, paving the way for an East Side building that opened in 2002 at a cost of $186 million.
The Admiral demands an Air Force
Initially low key and reticent, Robinson flexed his muscles in December 1991 when he blindsided McCombs with an “open letter” published by both of the city’s newspapers that began with “I’m finally fed up. I tried talking to you in a civilized manner. But obviously you don’t respect that because nothing has been done…”
Robinson went onto to explain that “flying commercial puts us at a distinct disadvantage, especially when every other team that has a legitimate shot at winning the world championship has their own plane and are sleeping in their own beds…” Soon thereafter, the
Spurs began chartering a Boeing 737.