The San Antonio Spurs’ ridiculous streak of consecutive playoff appearances is dead. Long live the Spurs’ ridiculous streak of consecutive playoff appearances.
San Antonio had made 22 straight trips to the NBA playoffs. From 1998 to 2019, the Spurs made the playoffs every season. That streak is now over.
San Antonio has been officially eliminated from the 2020 NBA playoffs after victories by the Memphis Grizzlies and Phoenix Suns on Thursday in the second-to-last day of seeding games at the bubble. San Antonio started the day needing a miracle to reach the new play-in series for the No. 8 seed. They didn’t get it.
The Spurs enter their final game in the bubble at 5-2 since the season restarted. San Antonio made a strong push to continue its postseason streak, but nothing can last forever.
The Spurs won the lottery last time they missed the playoffs
They drafted some guy from Wake Forest named Tim Duncan. Ever heard of him?
Gregg Popovich was San Antonio’s interim head coach the last time they missed the playoffs. Look at young Pop celebrating the Spurs’ big win in the lottery.
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NBAE via Getty Images
All that ping-pong ball did was change the franchise forever.
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NBAE via Getty Images
The Spurs will be a long-shot to jump up the NBA draft order this time around, and I am willing to go on the record saying no prospect in this year’s class is as good as Tim Duncan. Hot take, I know.
It’s even more impressive that the Spurs had made seven consecutive playoff appearances before the 1996-1997 season when they missed out. This organization’s history of success is pretty unbelievable.
Yes, it’s been a long-time since the Spurs missed the playoffs
The Spurs playoff streak is older than 50+ current NBA players.
Noah Magaro-George from our Spurs community Pounding the Rock put it best:
Last time Spurs missed the playoffs:
-Allen Iverson won ROTY
-LaMarcus was in 5th grade
-Lonnie wasn’t born yet
-Bulls dynasty was intact
-Karl Malone was MVP
-SuperSonics still existed
-Tim Duncan was at Wake Forest
-Robert Parish was still in the NBA— Noah Magaro-George (@N_Magaro) August 13, 2020
All the Spurs did during their playoff streak was win five NBA championships and post a 170-114 record in playoff games. This has been the NBA’s model franchise from decades.
It’s not all gloom and doom for the Spurs. San Antonio has some promising young pieces for the future. Read Pounding the Rock on rookie Keldon Johnson, who looked great in the bubble. There’s also Dejounte Murray, Jakob Poeltl, and Lonnie Walker.
Will the Spurs be able to start a new playoff streak next year? We’ll see. Until then, cheers to San Antonio on an incredible of a run.
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