SAN ANTONIO – Despite the selection of the top draft pick and new franchise cornerstone Victor Wembanyama, the San Antonio Spurs are on pace to set a team record for the number of losses in a full NBA season.
The Spurs, at the time of this writing, have only six wins for a meager .167 winning percentage, which places them dead last in the Western Conference and only ahead of the Detroit Pistons in the entire NBA. The Spurs beat the Pistons on Wednesday.
As a result, the NBA and its television partners on Tuesday decided not to air the Spurs’ Friday night home game against the Charlotte Hornets on ESPN, instead choosing to take the game off the network.
The piling of losses may be good for the NBA Draft Lottery and potentially another top-five pick. But Silver and Black fans hoped the selection of Wembanyama would fix what ailed the team last season and be able to compete for at least a play-in spot.
Instead, youthfulness and a lack of consistent effort have plagued the team.
The Spurs are on pace for as few as 14 wins. They’ve already set the team’s record for most consecutive losses in a season, losing 18 in a row at one point.
So how do the Spurs’ efforts compare to other poor showings by the Silver and Black in their history?
1988-89 (21-61): The season before the Admiral’s arrival
In the 1988-89 season, Spurs fans had very little to root for. The team was marred in mediocracy and there seemed to be no hope in sight. The Spurs had just lost the previous season in the Western Conference’s first round after making the playoffs with a losing record.
But there was a glimmer of hope on the horizon for the team’s fans. The team’s top pick in the 1987 NBA Draft had yet to make his arrival. That man was none other than the “Admiral,” the 7-foot Hall-of-Fame big man, David Robinson.
But fans had to wait a year before they could see Robinson don a Spurs jersey because he had to finish his U.S. Navy obligation first.
It was during that 1988-89 season that the team took a major step back, finishing 21-61 for a .256 winning percentage. Led by Head Coach Larry Brown and players such as Alvin Robertson, Vernon Maxwell and leading scorer rookie Willie Anderson, the team finished fifth in the NBA’s Midwest Division.
The Spurs opened that season with a win against the mighty Los Angeles Lakers, but then proceeded to lose six out of their next seven games. They would go on to lose 12 out of 13 games in one stretch beginning in early December and then would lose 13 in a row from February 4 to March 4.
Fans were ultimately rewarded for their patience, however, as the following season with a revamped roster brought in household names like Sean Elliott, Terry Cummings, Rod Strickland and Maurice Cheeks, who would go on to help David Robinson and finish at 56-26, second in the Western Conference the very next year.
Robinson and the team’s success that season ultimately saved the team from relocating.
1996-97 (20-62): The season destined to be determined by injuries
Unlike the 1988-89 season, the Spurs never could get going in 1996-97, as injuries right out of the gate kept them from ever really being a factor.
Despite winning their second straight Midwest Division title and making the Western Conference semi-finals the year before, the Spurs would go on to lose a team-record 62 games, which included losing 13 of their first 15 in November. They had an eight-game losing streak and another seven-game losing streak during the year.
Injuries were much of the reason for the poor performance. The team was without All-Star center David Robinson for a majority of the season. Robinson played in just a total of six games, due to back and foot injuries.
Sharpshooting forward Chuck Person was also held out that entire year due to an off-season back injury and Sean Elliott played just 39 games due to a knee injury. After just 18 games, Head Coach Bob Hill was fired and replaced by General Manager Gregg Popovich, who remains the head coach to this day.
The team held a meager 11–34 record at the All-Star break and the season was only the fourth time they missed the playoffs since they joined the NBA in 1976. Popovich finished that year with a 17-47 coaching record.
All the losing was ultimately worth it, however, as the Spurs won the NBA Lottery for the second time, and eventually drafted Hall-of-Fame legend Tim Duncan, who would bring five championships to the Alamo City and create the franchise the city has come to love. That season was the last time the Spurs failed to make the playoffs until Duncan retired.
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2022-23 (22-60): Forging a new path
It was just this past season that the San Antonio Spurs had one of their all-time worst statistical years, as the team went a measly 22-60, finishing tied for dead-last in the NBA’s Western Conference.
The team’s trades of veterans Dejounte Murray, Derrick White and Jakob Poeltl set the tone and blazed a new path for the franchise, as it cleared salary and opened up playing time for its younger players. Keldon Johnson, Devin Vassell, along with first-round picks Jeremy Sochan, Malaki Branham and Blake Wesley all began to try and make their mark.
The team, however, lost 18 of its first 25 games and had both an 11-game losing streak and a 16-game losing streak, one that lasted from Jan. 20 to Feb. 25.
And while the regular losing was tough for Spurs fans, ultimately, the lost season did what it was supposed to do: reset the franchise in the hopes of one day drafting the next generational star.
On the court, the team saw legitimate player development from its young players while they were able to accumulate more draft assets in the process. Fans during the year helped break the NBA single-game attendance record at the Alamodome and sold out two games in Austin. Off the court, the Spurs began work on their Victory Capital Performance Center, a new state-of-the-art training facility as part of a new multi-million dollar ‘Rock at La Cantera’ campus.
But it was during the offseason — on Tuesday, May 16, 2023, that Spurs fans could truly get excited: that was the day the Spurs won the NBA Draft Lottery for the third time and secured the rights to draft 19-year-old French phenom Victor Wembanyama, providing the team with its next All-Star and franchise player.
It’s not all doom and gloom
If history is any indication, each time the Spurs posted a 60-loss season, the franchise bounced back in a huge way the following year. And while that won’t happen this year, things are still looking up, as the team is now armed with Wembanyama, up-in-comers Vassell and Johnson and a treasure trove of draft picks. They also have a clean cap sheet that will enable them to make future trades.
Popovich even praised the team’s effort in a recent loss, stating that he liked what he saw after the team fell 125-121 at home last Thursday to the Milwaukee Bucks. And players like Wembanya agreed.
“Just the fact we can compete with a championship-level team like this, it’s promising,” Wembanyama said.
On Wednesday, Wembanyama posted his first career NBA triple-double, scoring 16 points while also grabbing 12 rebounds and dishing out 10 assists in a what was a 130-108 victory over the Detroit Pistons.
“It’s just starting to click a little more,” San Antonio Spurs guard Tre Jones said.
Should this futile season turn into another top NBA Draft pick and a potential running mate for Wemby, fans of the Spurs will have something to smile about, as the organization tries to put together a roster capable of competing for that elusive sixth NBA championship.
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