We are deep into the doldrums of the NBA off season with over a month to go until training camp. To fill in the gap, we have enjoyed doing bracket-style tournaments over the years, and this year, we will be determining who the biggest Spurs villain of all time is. With the help of you and our staff, we have created four categories of eight for a total of 32 participants. Readers will vote for the biggest villain in a poll, and the winner of each match-up will advance to the next round, with the eventual winner crowned as the Biggest Spurs Villain of all time. Here are the four categories:
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Spurs Killers — players who have ruined playoff series and/or made devastating shots or plays that will haunt our minds for all eternity. (Note: this is not necessarily superstars who gave everyone trouble all the time, but a few are included for specific events.)
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Former Spurs — players who once played for the Spurs but became villains either because of betrayal, trash talk, they hate on the Spurs, etc.
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Dirty Players — players who committed dirty plays against the Spurs, injured (or attempted to injure) a Spur or altered a playoff match-up, and we will never forgive them.
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Spurs Haters — a more open category that can include players as well as coaches, owners, etc. from outside the organization who openly and publicly trashed the Spurs for various reasons.
Today, we are starting with Round 1 of Spurs Killers. Without further ado, let’s get voting!
1. Derek Fisher vs. 8. Chris Paul
These two need no introduction. First we have Derek Fisher, who across multiple teams and playoff series gave the Spurs plenty of trouble. Most infamously was the still-controversial 0.4 shot in ’04, which came right after a huge shot by Tim Duncan to take the lead with 0.4 second left, and won the crucial Game 5 of the Western Conference Semi-finals for the Lakers and eventually the series, ending the Spurs’ chance of a repeat and giving them a series loss to the Lakers in three out of the last four years. To this day, questions linger if the clock started on time, and there was even a 0.4 rule created that stated it is physically impossible to get a jump shot off in less than 0.4 sec, and anything less means a player can only tip the ball.
But that isn’t all Fisher has done. There was also the Spurs’ 2008 loss to the Lakers in the Conference Finals, which again ended their chance at the elusive repeat. A big argument can be made that he fouled Brent Barry on the game-winning attempt of Game 4, which sent the series back to LA with the Spurs down 3-1. And of course, he was a pest in their 2012 Conference Finals loss to the Thunder, although the biggest pest of that series is also on this list.
Then there’s Chris Paul, who was always a thorn in the Spurs’ side and constantly battled with Tony Parker for the title of top PG in the West, if not the league. His lower seed is aided by the fact that the Spurs usually still had his number (despite a grueling seven-game series victory over the Hornets in 2008) and being a Spur himself just a season ago, but he still had his moment in Game 7 of the first round of 2015, hitting a prayer over Duncan to win the series and again spoil the Spurs’ chance at a repeat. (I see a theme developing here…)
4. Serge Ibaka vs. 5. Jalen Brunson and OG Anunoby
These two could probably be seeded either way, but that’s what voting is for. (Personally, I’m still a bit more bothered by 2012 than 2026; perhaps it’s a case of “running out of time” vs. “we’re just getting started”.) In the fourth seed, we have the aforementioned Spurs killer of 2012. They had been on a historic 20-game winning streak, including the last 10 games of the regular season and first 10 of the playoffs before hitting a brick wall against the Thunder in Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals.
A big part of that was the play of prime Serge Ibaka, whose athleticism proved to be their kryptonite. (The Thunder even chose him over James Harden in free agency after this series, in case anyone forgot.) The Spurs just couldn’t do anything right the rest of the series, flaming out in spectacular fashion. They would later run into the same Thunder team in the 2014 WCF and face a similar scenario of going 2-2 in the first four games. This time they pulled it out in Games 5 and 6, but Ibaka missed the first two games and was then limited by a calf strain.
As for the fifth seed, I struggled whether to go with one player or the 2026 Knicks in general (they were just a bad matchup), but it was these two in particular who sank the Spurs (beyond their own mistakes). Brunson didn’t have a great shooting series overall but always came up clutch in their fourth-quarter comebacks, and Anunoby handed the Spurs the devastating blow in Game 4 by tipping in Brunson’s missed three just before the buzzer, capping off a 33-point night and handing the Spurs the biggest blown lead in Finals history of 29 points.
2. Ray Allen vs. 7. Dirk Nowitzki
Again, no introduction needed. “The Shot” by Ray Allen in Game 6 of the 2013 Finals remains one of the most iconic plays in Finals history and the one that haunts my mind the most. The Spurs had that championship all but clinched, Heat fans were leaving the arena, and staff was setting up for the trophy ceremony before a couple of Spurs blunders (players and coaching) combined with this devastating shot off an offensive rebound sent the game to overtime and the Spurs too stunned to recover. At least it led to The Redemption of 2014.
As for Nowitzki, he wasn’t a Spurs killer all the time since they had Tim Duncan to counter him, but there certainly were some epic playoff match-ups between the rival Spurs and Mavs. 2003 could have gone differently if Dirk was healthy, and both teams traded blows in 2009 and 2010, with the lower seed upsetting the upper in each case. The Mavs also gave the Spurs a good wakeup call in 2014, but his real killer moment came in 2006. Maybe it was more the Spurs’ fault (hence the lower seed), but in Game 7 of the second round, with the Spurs up by three late, Manu Ginobili made the mistake of fouling Nowitzki on a two-point attempt. He converted the three-point play, and the Mavs went on to win the series in overtime, AGAIN costing the Spurs a chance to repeat.
3. Hakeem Olajuwon vs. 6. Zach Randolph
We’re looking back a little further to 1995 for the first one, when the 6th-seeded (but defending champion) Houston Rockets, led by Hakeem Olajuwon, spoiled the Spurs’ only real shot at a title pre-Tim Duncan. Feeling snubbed by David Robinson winning MVP, The Dream dominated and out-performed The Admiral in a WCF upset, averaging 35.3 points, 12.5 rebounds, and 5.0 assists per game compared to Robinson’s 23.8 points and 11.3 rebounds. Even though he won two championships with Duncan a few years later, it remains a stain on David’s legacy that he never won one on his own.
Finally, we have the Spurs’ biggest playoff upset of all time, when they lost as the top seed to the 8th-seeded Memphis Grizzlies in Round 1 in 2011. It’s another case of we could just say “2011 Grizzlies”, but Randolph was the real killer, with his physical play in the low post exposing a size mismatch that the already-injured Spurs struggled to contain. (Reminder: Manu was their best player that year but was playing through a broken elbow.) On the upside, it forced a few changes: Duncan realized he needed to transform his body to keep up, and the Spurs realized they needed more size and defense, leading Gregg Popovich to move away from DeJuan Blair to Tiago Splitter (albeit too late for this series) and the draft-night trade for Kawhi Leonard.
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