San Antonio Spurs: The Last Time They Missed the Playoffs…
Over the last 17 years, the San Antonio Spurs have become an NBA Playoff staple. The last time they missed the playoffs, the world was very different…
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With the San Antonio Spurs clinching a playoff berth this past week, it marks the 17th consecutive season of postseason basketball in San Antonio. That means that the last time we weren’t watching the Spurs in May was all the way back in 1997.
Needless to say, the world is a very different place now than it was in 1997. So why not take a trip down memory lane and see just what life was like the last time the Spurs missed the playoffs…
- Michael Jordan‘s Flu Game Happened: The last time the San Antonio Spurs were out of the playoffs, Michael Jordan had his famous flu game. Dawning his now iconic Air Jordan 12s at the time, he pulled himself together just three hours before the game while suffering from illness and went on to drop 38 points enroute to an eventually 5th ring.
- Eddie Murphy Caught with a Tranny: You read that right. The last time the Spurs missed out on the NBA Playoffs, world-renowned comedian Eddie Murphy was arrested along with transsexual prostitute, Atisone Seiuli. What can I say…’97 was a strange year.
- Kasparov vs. Deep Blue: World Champion chess player, Garry Kasparov, went head-to-head with an IBM computer. The computer was named Deep Blue, and the match that ensued was iconic for the game of chess as well as for all of the people who today play against the computer online. Deep Blue would eventually win the game a total of eight days later.
- Pitino in Boston: The now NCAA Champion coach of the Louisville Cardinals, was named the head coach of the Boston Celtics in 1997. He’d go on to amass a win-loss record of 102 and 146 over 3+ seasons with the team. It was his experience with the Celtics primarily, that would lead him back to the collegiate game where he has since found a lot of success.
- Introducing Howard Stern: Now a consistent presence on multiple levels of media, in 1997 the Howard Stern Radio Show was just getting underway and it slowly spread throughout the United States, getting more and more airtime city by city.
- Goku vs. Frieza: That’s right; the last time the Spurs missed the NBA Playoffs, Goku’s biggest threat was the maniacal Lord Frieza. For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about…it’s a Dragon Ball Z reference…and you should be ashamed for not knowing.
- Internet Explorer 4.0: Wow, we’ve come a mighty long way. I’m not even sure if people still use Internet Explorer with any real consistency. Apparently they’re up to number 11 now it looks like. So there’s certainly been some changes made…at least I think.
- 42: Major League Baseball honored a pioneer in 1997. They opted to retire his number, 42, throughout all of the league. This came on the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking baseball’s color barrier, and excluded any players already dawning the jersey. Mariano Rivera retired in 2013 as the last player who will ever wear the number.
- Ellen Degeneres: In 1997 Ellen Degeneres made history by coming out as gay before an audience of 42 million people. It might be difficult to remember but at that time, despite being just 18 years ago, very few people were supportive of the gay community and even fewer were open about their sexuality.
- I was in diapers: The last time the Spurs missed the playoffs I was a couple months shy of my second birth day. To give you some sort of reference point…I’m now a college Sophomore. I’ve literally grown up knowing that the San Antonio Spurs were great. I legitimately cannot remember a time when they weren’t playing postseason hoops without looking it up.
So here’s to another 17+ years of San Antonio playing in May and June. Year after year basketball writers (including myself on occasion) have written off Coach Popovich’s squad. Somehow though they continue to defy logic by seemingly aging like fine wine as opposed to actual people.
Maybe 17 years from now Tim Duncan will be posting up guys a third his age while Tony Parker limps his way through defenders to the basket, Manu Ginobili hits clutch threes while clutching his back, and Pop one-lines the media from behind his walker.