Spurs' Dynasty: the End Is upon Us

Over the last nine seasons, the San Antonio Spurs, led by basketball legend Tim Duncan, have won four championships while being the most consistent team over that span.

In the 1998-1999 season (the lockout season—only 50 regular season games were played), the Spurs, led by Duncan and Hall Fame center David Robinson, won their first franchise championship. After the Lakers' three—peat, the Spurs ended the Lakers' hopes of the first four—peat since Bill Russell's Celtics and later swept a weak New Jersey Nets team for their second championship.

Two years later, they edged the Detroit Pistons (who were trying for back-to-back titles) in a grueling seven game series. Finally, last year the Spurs won it all again, cementing their team as a dynasty by getting help beating the Suns and sweeping a Cavs team that would have struggled even making the playoffs in the stronger and deeper Western conference.

However, the Spurs are NOT going to win another championship with the team they have assembled. They are truly too old and slow and don't have enough offensive weapons to contend with the other teams in the league.

Spurs fans are going to say that they always win every other year, but they got lucky last year and shouldn't have won it all. What makes you think that next year they are going to win it all? They can't even beat an inexperienced Lakers team without a healthy Andrew Bynum. Next year, the Jazz, Rockets, and Hornets along with the Lakers will all be either equal or better than the Spurs in the West.

They had a great run. During their stretch of dominance, Tim Duncan became an all-time top 15 player, Tony Parker become an all-star, Manu Ginobli (who was picked 57th overall) became as good as a winner as there is in the league, Gregg Poppovich became one of the five greatest coaches ever and the Spurs became one of the few franchises in the history of the league to have a dynasty. They were often called boring, but they were the model franchise in the NBA for the last decade by being quiet but effective, classy and respectful.

But looking towards the future, other teams are going to start their own dynasties, probably the Lakers or possibly the Trailblazers. The Spurs will be a good team for the next five years, but will never return to the Finals unless major moves are made to put a better supporting cast around Duncan. They will need to get younger, quicker and much more athletic.