The San Antonio Spurs’ moving streak of consecutive playoff appearances is dead. Long live the ridiculous region of the Spurs 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 stretch is now over.
San Antonio was officially eliminated from the NBA playoffs in 2020 after victories by the Memphis Grizzlies and Phoenix Suns on Thursday in the second-to-last day of boiling games at the bubble. San Antonio started the day with a miracle needed to reach the new play-in series for the No. 8 seed. They did not get it.
The Spurs enter their last game in the bubble at 5-2 since the restart of the season. San Antonio made strong pressure to continue their streak of the postseason, but nothing can last forever.
The Spurs won the lottery the last time they missed the playoffs
They drafted a man from Wake Forest named Tim Duncan. Ever heard of him?
Gregg Popovich was the interim head coach of San Antonio 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 while to jump the NBA carrier this time around, and I’m ready to go on the plate and say that no prospect in this year’s class is as good as Tim Duncan. Hot take, I know it.
It is even more impressive that the Spurs had made seven consecutive playoff appearances for the 1996-1997 season when they missed. The history of this organization’s success is quite unbelievable.
Yes, it’s been a long time since the Spurs missed the playoffs
The Spurs playoff region is older than 50+ current NBA players.
Noah Magaro-George of our Spurs community Pounding the Rock put it best:
Last time Spurs missed the playoffs:
-Allen Iverson has won ROTY
-LaMarcus was in 5th grade
-Lonnie has not been 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 set a 170-114 record in playoff games. This has been the NBA’s model franchise of decades.
It’s not all gloomy and doom for the Spurs. San Antonio has some promising young pieces for the future. Read Pounding the Rock about rookie Keldon Johnson, who looked great in the bubble. There are also Dejounte Murray, Jakob Poeltl, and Lonnie Walker.
Will the Spurs be able to start a new playoff spot next year? We’ll see. Until then, cheers to San Antonio on unbelievable of a run.
