Meet the Spurs B asketball demands great individual talent but the sport sport also rewards unselfish team play The San Antonio Spurs Spurs are proof of this The Spurs have had some of the game’s most ost outrageously skilled players Yet only when they blended their talents did they become champions What makes the Spurs a little different Their players often come from a wide range of backgrounds The same is true of San Antonio’s coaches When they all work together the result is fantastic This book tells the story of the Spurs From its earliest days the team was famous for having fun on the court and playing entertaining basketball Fans never knew when something might happen that they’d never seen before And d win or lose they always left a Spurs game with something to to talk about Coach Gregg Popovich gives instructions to Tony Parker They helped the Spurs win three championships in a five-year span 5
h Glory Days D uring the 1960s Texas went crazy for professional sports Early in the decade the state fielded three pro football teams and a major league baseball team In 1967 Texas got its first pro basketball team the Dallas Chaparrals A chaparral is a bird ppro basketball team the Dalla common to the Southwest The Chaparrals ccoommmmoonn or Chaps for short were part of the oorr CC American Basketball Association AAm ABA a new league that played its A first season in 1967 68 fi 6T f f i l The ABA featured high-scoring games that showcased the talents of ga players who were overlooked by the play older National Basketball Association older NBA The Chaparrals were one of the better teams in the early years of the ABA Their stars included John Beasley Glen Combs Cincy Powell Rich Jones Steve Jones Ron Boone and Donnie Freeman They made the playoffs in each of their first five seasons 6
Despite their success the Chaps failed to catch on with Dallas fans The team was in danger of folding when a group of investors bought the club in 1973 The new owners moved the Chaps to San Antonio and renamed them the Spurs Fans in San Antonio had never had their own professional team in any sport The city fell in love with the Spurs and their wide-open style of basketball The first star to wear the Spurs uniform was George Gervin He was a graceful player who could put the ball in the basket a dozen different ways Along with James Silas and Larry Kenon Gervin turned the Spurs into one of the highest scoring teams in history San Antontio won a lot of games and attracted a lot of fans LEFT This old ABA uniform patch shows a chaparral ABOVE George Gervin makes a move to the basket 7
