The San Antonio Spurs: A Top Ten NBA Franchise
Chase Coleman
Dr. Matthew Wilson
SPTB 201
November 6, 2014
In 1967, the San Antonio Spurs started off as the Dallas Chaparrals playing basketball as one of the eleven teams in the ABA. From the start, the Chaparrals were a team that would be hard to beat. The Chaparrals made it to the ABA finals in their first season to come just short of a championship by losing to the Pittsburg Pipers. After 6 seasons of changing names and seasons, the Dallas Chaparrals then moved to San Antonio and being known as the Spurs (spurs.com). This move was made because the Chaparrals were going down financially and they were finally saved by John Schaefer, B. J. "Red" McCombs, Art Burdick, and Angelo Drosso. The four men were successful San Antonio native businessmen who were looking for an investment that they believed could be fun and exciting (spurs.com). There was one turning point for the San Antonio Spurs that these new owners made that changed the franchise.
In 1973 the Spurs organization made a huge move. The Spurs were off to a 1-6 start since the new move to San Antonio, so the owners decided to acquire Swen Nater. Nater made the ABA All-Star game in his year with the Spurs (basketball-reference.com). Also in 1973 George Gervin, a 21-year old black male from Virginia, was acquired by the San Antonio Spurs. This was the Spurs second big move after the new ownership was in place (basketball-reference.com). The owners knew that George Gervin was going to be a big time player, but little did they know the impact that he was going to have on the organization. Gervin became known as “The Iceman” and is now an NBA legend.
The San Antonio Spurs made the transition from the ABA into the NBA in 1976. This was a major move for the franchise because only four teams from the ABA were allowed entrance into the NBA. All the other teams in the ABA that did not gain admittance into the NBA...