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Eric WoodyardESPN
Puff Daddy and Mase topped the Billboard Hot 100s charts with their smash hit “Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down” the last time the San Antonio Spurs missed the NBA playoffs.
That’s how long it’s been – way back in the 1996-1997 season.
The final buzzer sounded Thursday night with the Utah Jazz over San Antonio 118-112, allowing the Spurs to officially eliminate controversy for a play-in spot from the Western Conference and end their record-breaking 22 consecutive appearances after the season.
“It probably means a lot to a lot of people, but I do not dwell on the past,” said legendary Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, who won five NBA titles in that team. ‘That game is whole [not] important, what matters is the moment you do what you have to do then you go on, but seeing the past does not do much good. Every success we have had has been because we have had some great players. “
The Spurs came into Thursday’s game after winning three in a row despite being projected as playoff-long shots entering the NBA’s Walt Disney World bubble. Victories by the Memphis Grizzlies and Phoenix Suns prior to Thursday’s tipoff officially cemented the elimination of San Antonio, but the Spurs managed to remain in controversy until the very end.
“I’m more excited about this than anything you’ve talked about today, successes or non-successes, because it ended in success for stripes or what the hell, whoever you’re talking about,” Popovich said. “I could care less about it. I’m excited about the way they play here.”
He praised the hard work of his core of young players after the reboot in coming short of the play-in round, which starts on Saturday and coincides with the No. 8 team against the no. 9-team.
“They had no shot at getting into this thing and wanted to give themselves this opportunity in principle,” he added. “The development of the young children is playing for the most part as they did, this is the best we’ve played all year. I really enjoyed it.”
Spursman DeMar DeRozan said the team’s elimination was difficult to swallow.
“I can live with the fact when we went out and it had to be that we win or lose and we lost,” he said. “I could kind of accept that playing a little more than watching other teams and not really playing their starters and giving the other team a chance to win kind, so that was extremely frustrating.”
According to Elias, 117 active NBA players were born on or after April 20, 1997 – the last day of the Spurs’ 1996-97 season, when they previously missed the playoffs for this season. That includes players from the eight teams that were not in the bubble, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.
The 22-year-old run of playoff spots tied the Philadelphia 76ers’ franchise for the longest time in NBA history. The 76ers, starting as the Syracuse Nationals before moving to Philadelphia, went to the playoffs every year from 1950 to 1971.
The Houston Rockets now have the longest active postseason streak in eight seasons.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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