All Hail the Spurs

The San Antonio Spurs have won 50 games or more in a season 17 times in a row. Let that sink in.

Most franchises shoot for 50 wins as a measure of having arrived, as a way to extend a coach's contract, as a metric of success.

The Spurs have accomplished this 17 consecutive seasons. It is mind boggling. The second longest streak (12) is by the Los Angeles Lakers.

I am old. I (barely and kind of) remember the great Boston teams. I remember the then-Lew Alcindor Milwaukee Buck teams. I remember Wilt on the Lakers with Jerry West. I remember a Boston front line of Bird, Parrish, and McHale. None of these fabulous teams, however, could sustain greatness like these Spurs.

Seventeen Years? Wow. If the Spurs had played in the Eastern Conference, I would make an attempt to demean their accomplishment because, well, the East has been bad a majority of those 17 years and scheduling is unbalanced. San Antonio, however, has done this in the Western Conference, which frankly has been loaded and has kicked the Eastern Conference's derriere.

All sports fans should take a moment to reflect and salute the Spurs. We will not see their like again.

37-13 in the lockout shortened 1998-99 season. This one should count (equivalent to a 61-win season). In my book, they have 19 consecutive seasons of 50+ wins from 1997-98 to now.

I agree. If I remember correctly, they won the title that season, so clearly they would have won more than 50.

They were the first team to really adopt European style of basketball to the NBA, although to me Euro hoops is just 1950's American basketball -- no dribble occupation and less one on one stuff than was standard in the NBA 20 years ago.