Despite only being a tiny market, the San Antonio Spurs quickly became a crowd favourite. The early Spurs were led by James Silas and then later on by George Gervin after a “controversial” trade with the Virginia Squires. The ABA tried to block the deal, claiming it would be negative to the league, but a judge would rule in the Spurs favor.

After fast financial success for the Spurs regardless of early playoffs woes, the team was included in the ABA-NBA merger. George Gervin would constantly lead the Spurs to the playoffs, but their season was ended by the likes of the Washington Bullets, the Boston Celtics, the Houston Rockets and the LA Lakers.

After Gervin was traded to the Bulls in the 1984-85 season, the Spurs struggled massively for quite some time till they were able to draft David Robinson with the first draft choice in 1988. After adding further pieces like Sean Elliot and Terry Cummings to complement Robinson, the Spurs would have a superb turnabout. San Antonio would go on to win 56 games and David Robinson would win Rookie of the Year after averaging 12 rebounds and 24 points a game.

For years Robinson was the best player in San Antonio with varying levels of success. He earned the MVP award once, but they never reached the Finals till they landed a second No. 1 pick in the draft, Tim Duncan. Check out our 2012 NBA championship odds to see which team will win it all this season. The twin towers of Robinson and Duncan won one title in the shortened NBA season in 1998-99. They’d win another title before Robinson retired for good during the 2002-03 season, and two more titles with the new trio of Duncan, Parker and Ginobili.

The best San Antonio Spurs team of all time would go to the 2002-03 Spurs. Robinson would retire as an NBA champ playing alongside a solid nucleus of Steve Kerr, Stephen Jackson, Sean Elliott, Tony Parker, rookie Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan. Although the Spurs have 4 titles, the 2002-03 championship team is definitely the greatest Spurs team ever.

Need some help beating the NBA lines? Check out what our expert NBA picks from the best handicappers in the business.

The Greatest San Antonio Spurs Team Ever is a post from: WiredWriter