San Antonio Spurs: Ranking the 5 Biggest Rivals in Franchise History

The San Antonio Spurs have had their fair share of success, and along with success, comes teams and characters that want to get in the way of any further success. 

The rivals of the San Antonio Spurs have tried to do just that. Over the past decade, the Spurs have had to face familiar teams, some having been established for the past 10 years, much like the Spurs have. 

Each team wants a piece of the Spurs, and some just want to get under the team's skin. Regardless, the Spurs have enough rivalries from their decade-long success to entertain their fans come playoff time.

For the past 10 years, characters such as Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon, Dirk Nowitzki, Steve Nash and Amar'e Stoudemire have had their hand in shaping a rivalry between their respective teams and the Spurs.

So, here are the five best Spurs' rivalries, ranked, in franchise history.  

5. San Antonio Spurs vs. Utah Jazz

The San Antonio Spurs weren't the same team in the mid-90s as they were in the 2000s, but they did make the playoffs eight times. Three of those trips (1994, 1996, 1998) were cut short by the Utah Jazz. 

In the days of Karl Malone and John Stockton, not many teams out west were better than the Jazz. The Spurs contested as hard as they could, and never really came close. 

Though the two teams never had a real spat, the Spurs' frustration from their inability to beat the Utah Jazz made them a worthy opponent.

4. San Antonio Spurs vs. Houston Rockets

The San Antonio Spurs and Houston Rockets never had a nasty rivalry; rather, the two respectable franchises merely play for bragging rights in the famous I-10 rivalry named for the freeway that separates them. 

The Rockets and Spurs were both at their peak in 1995, when the Houston Rockets squeaked by the Spurs in the 1995 Western Conference Finals behind Hakeem "The Dream" Olajuwon. David Robinson was horribly outplayed in that series by Hakeem. That may have been their only noteworthy playoff series, but it was a fun one, nonetheless. 

Since then, marquee names have been in and out of the rivalry, including (but not limited to) Tracy McGrady, Yao Ming, Tim Duncan, David Robinson, Charles Barkley and Olajuwon. 

3. San Antonio Spurs vs. Los Angeles Lakers

The Los Angeles Lakers and the San Antonio Spurs have combined for 10 NBA Finals' appearances since 1999 and have had to go through one another in six of those appearances. 

Holy. Hell. 

The Spurs and Lakers were never bad-blood rivals. They knew that, to get to an NBA Finals, those kinds of antics could only hurt, not help. 

What you did get was smart, aesthetically-pleasing, close, sharp, star-studded basketball. 

When the Spurs swept the Lakers in 1999 en route to their NBA championship, the Lakers remembered and returned the favor in 2001. The series wasn't even close—the Spurs were blown out by double digits in three of their four losses.

In 2002, the playoff series between the Spurs and Lakers was remarkably close, despite ending in five games—only one game was decided by more than six points in that series. Ever since then, the teams had various tight playoff games through 2008, when the rivalry was essentially ended. 

2. San Antonio Spurs vs. Dallas Mavericks

Much like the Lakers vs. Spurs rivalry, the rivalry between the Dallas Mavericks and the San Antonio Spurs focuses on the dramatic (and successful) basketball played between the two teams. 

In fact, the Mavericks are the only team in the Western Conference to appear in the NBA Finals besides the Lakers and Spurs. Their prominence and consistent playoff presence has pit them against the Spurs five times in the postseason since 2001. 

The Spurs have the edge, but only three games to two. Though the earlier playoff series (2001, 2003) weren't all important (since the Mavericks were a project-type team, running and gunning but never having a championship-caliber defense), the latter playoff matchups (2006, 2009, 2010) held a whole lot of meaning. 

In 2006, the Mavericks turned the rivalry upside down, finally moving past the Spurs and (later) into the NBA Finals (though they would lose to the Miami Heat). Avery Johnson—a disciple of Gregg Popovich in San Antonio—took the reigns and led the Mavs to elite contender status, though they never saw much success during Johnson's run aside from the 2006 NBA playoffs.

In 2009, the Mavericks and Spurs had another close playoff series (this one, a little more aggressive, though nothing serious occurred), with both teams having a lot to prove—the Mavericks had gained a reputation for being perennial playoff chokers while the Spurs had received a lot of "they're really, really old" talk. The Mavericks won, though they did nothing past beating the Spurs that year. 

Their 2010 series saw much of the same that appeared in 2009. Both teams had a lot to prove, but instead, the "aging" Spurs moved past the Mavericks despite numerous skirmishes (which included an Eduardo Najera ejection and a Dirk Nowitzki-induced broken nose, both suffered by professional punching bag, Manu Ginobili). 

1. San Antonio Spurs vs. Phoenix Suns

You knew the Phoenix Suns were going to be No. 1. 

Sure, the Suns only got past the San Antonio Spurs once, and sure, all the other times, the Spurs showed the feisty Phoenix Suns who big brother was. But when we knew these two were going to play in the postseason, we watched, waiting for one team to draw first blood. 

If you had to pick the bloodiest rivalry over the past decade, you had nowhere else to look except the Spurs vs. Suns rivalry. 

The first three playoff series of the decade (2000, 2003, 2005) between the Spurs and Suns didn't hold much meaning. The Suns had become a force in the West in 2005 under Steve Nash, but no one had expected Phoenix to get a title in their first year with Nash as their point guard. 

The rivalry escalated about 300 notches in 2007. 

In that infamous 2007 playoff series, four games involved either an ejection, a fight or lacerations. Both teams adjusted well and the series was tightly contested. The Suns lost to the Spurs in that series, but not without controversy—not only did the suspension of Amar'e Stoudemire and Boris Diaw hurt the Suns, but the suspensions were a result of the two merely leaving the bench when Horry tossed Steve Nash into the scorer's booth. Additionally, this series was one that came under intense scrutiny for its officiating. 

In 2008, the new-look Suns (now boasting Shaquille O'Neal as their center) were swept by the Spurs; however, each game was tightly contested, and the first game of the series is widely considered to be one of the best single playoff games in the history of the NBA.

This was a double-overtime game that involved a Tim Duncan three-pointer to tie, a Steve Nash fadeaway-out-of-bounds desperation three-point shot, and an oh-my-gosh-someone-get-that-guy last second layup by Manu Ginobili. In essence, the entire series came down to the very first game, and the Suns were clearly deflated by such a close loss and never won a game in the series. 

In 2010, the two teams got another shot at one another in the postseason. This time, though, the Phoenix Suns would get their revenge and sweep the Spurs 4-0.