1999 Overview
From Hoopedia
1998-99 NBA Season
Recovering from the labor lockout that cut more than three months out of the 1998-99 schedule, the NBA played 50 games in 89 days. The season didn’t start until February, and teams had just two weeks in which to prepare. Another change was the retirement of Michael Jordan, the league’s long-time star attraction.
Still, the league’s new look emerged in short time, with Philadelphia’s Allen Iverson (26.8 points per game) edging the Lakers’ Shaquille O'Neal(26.3) for the scoring title and Toronto's Vince Carter earning Rookie of the Year distinction.
Team success was achieved by the Spurs and their overwhelming frontcourt—the gentlemanly David Robinson, in his 10th season, and Tim Duncan, the second-year power forward out of Wake Forest with a fundamentally pure game.
Making it all the sweeter for long-time fans, the Spurs became the first of the former American Basketball Association teams to reach the NBA championship round, ending a dry spell that stretched over a quarter century.
San Antonio stumbled out of the gate to six wins and eight losses. But March and April brought displays of dominance that extended the Spurs’ record to 37-13 and gave them home-court advantage through the playoffs.
Throughout the whirl of days, Alamodome fans serenaded Duncan with chants of “MVP!” The award would go to Utah’s Karl Malone, but the postseason would boost Duncan’s case.
After their flourish to close the regular season, Coach Gregg Popovich refired the engines for an 11-1 dash through the Western Conference Playoffs. The Minnesota Timberwolves managed a Game 2 win in the Alamodome during the First Round, but after that the T-wolves went quickly, followed by the Lakers and Trail Blazers in sweeps. The Blazers did seem set to take Game 2, until Sean Elliott’s late three-pointer, the so-called “Memorial Day Miracle,” pushed the Spurs over the brink. With his team down 85-83 and all timeouts exhausted, Elliott rose up 24 feet from the basket with 12 seconds to go. “'If he had put his heels down, he would have been out of bounds,” Popovich said later.
With the wins, San Antonio advanced to the league championship series for the first time in franchise history.
The surprise of the playoffs, the New York Knicks, won a showdown with the Indiana Pacers to become the first number-eight seed to reach the championship series.
When the Finals began, there was little suspense for the crowd of 39,514 at the Alamodome once Duncan settled in to work on the Knicks’ undermanned frontcourt. With Patrick Ewing out with an injured Achilles tendon, the Knicks relied heavily on Latrell Sprewell and Allan Houston, but Spurs took a 1-0 lead, 89-77.Game 2 had a similar feel and outcome, 80-67, with Duncan running his two-game totals to 58 points and 31 rebounds.
New York found an edge in Game 3, 89-81, but a strong defensive effort netted San Antonio a 96-89 win in Game 4, then the Spurs settled the matter in Game 5, 78-77.Duncan, the Finals MVP, led the Spurs in the series-ending game with 31 points, while Sprewell scored 35. But the game winner for San Antonio came on Avery Johnson’s deep two-pointer from the left corner with 47 seconds to go.
New York, trailing 78-77, got the ball back with 2.1 seconds left. New York inbounded, but the Spurs promptly pinned Sprewell against the baseline. He executed a spin move and even managed to get off a shot through the foliage of outstretched arms, but it was off target. This was to be the Spurs’ night and the Spurs’ season.
