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
In 1976 the Spurs were one of four ABA teams invited to join the NBA In their second season they won the Central Division and Gervin was the NBA’s top scorer During the 1980s he was joined by Johnny Moore Mike Mitchell and Artis Gilmore The Spurs reached the finals of the Western Conference twice Both times they were defeated by the Los Angeles Lakers In 1989 a talented center named David Robinson joined the team San Antonio added more good players in the years that followed However in 1996 97 Robinson missed most of the year with an injury and the Spurs finished in last place The silver lining was that they wound up with the first pick in the draft They selected another agile big man Tim Duncan In 1998 99 Duncan and Robinson led a talented squad that included Sean Elliott Avery Johnson and Mario Elie They reached the NBA Finals for the first time and defeated the New York Knicks for their first championship LEFT David Robinson helped turn the Spurs into the NBA’s best team ABOVE Tim Duncan celebrates a San Antonio championship 9
