1999 NBA Finals

The 1999 NBA Finals was the championship round of the 1998-99 NBA season. The San Antonio Spurs of the Western Conference took on the New York Knicks of the Eastern Conference for the title, with the Spurs holding home court advantage. The series is played under a best-of-seven format, so the first team to collect four game victories wins the series.

Background

The 1999 NBA season was shortened to a labor dispute that lead to a lockout, canceling the first 3 months of the season, literally making this the 1999 NBA Finals. The NBA would have teams play 50 games, and a normal playoffs. The San Antonio Spurs had the fearsome "Twin Towers", veteran center David Robinson and second year star forward Tim Duncan. The Spurs carried a 37-13 record, the best in the Western Conference.

Meanwhile, the Knicks had a tumultuous regular season in which they went 27-23 and sneaked into the playoffs as the eighth and final seed. However, the Knicks would upset the Miami Heat, Atlanta Hawks and the Indiana Pacers en route to becoming the first 8th seed in NBA history to reach the Finals.

The Spurs won the series 4 games to 1. Spurs forward Tim Duncan was named the Most Valuable Player of the finals. In Game 5, with under a minute to go, it was Avery Johnson who hit the game-winner.

Series scoring summary

The following scoring summary is written in a line score format, except that the quarter numbers are replaced by game numbers.

1999 NBA Finals Roster

1999 San Antonio Spurs

Head Coach:Gregg Popovich
Tim Duncan | David Robinson | Sean Elliott | Mario Elie | Avery Johnson | Jaren Jackson | Malik Rose | Antonio Daniels | Steve Kerr | Jerome Kersey | Will Perdue | Gerard King | Andrew Gaze | Brandon Williams |

1999 New York Knicks

Head Coach:Jeff Van Gundy
Patrick Ewing | Latrell Sprewell | Allan Houston | Larry Johnson | Kurt Thomas | Charlie Ward | Marcus Camby | Chris Childs | Chris Dudley | Ben Davis | Herb Williams | Rick Brunson | David Wingate |

Schedule

• Game 1 - June 16, Wednesday @San Antonio, San Antonio 89, New York 77: San Antonio leads series 1-0
• Game 2 - June 18, Friday @San Antonio, San Antonio 80, New York 67: San Antonio leads series 2-0
• Game 3 - June 21, Monday @New York, New York 89, San Antonio 81: San Antonio leads series 2-1
• Game 4 - June 23, Wednesday @New York, San Antonio 96, New York 89: San Antonio leads series 3-1
• Game 5 - June 25, Friday @New York, San Antonio 78, New York 77: San Antonio wins series 4-1

The Finals were played using a 2-3-2 site format, where the first two and last two games are held at the team with home court advantage. The NBA, after experimenting in the early years, restored this original format for the Finals in 1985. As of yet, the other playoff series are still running on a 2-2-1-1-1 site format.

Trivia

• The Spurs became the first former ABA team to play and win in an NBA Finals.
• Steve Kerr became the first non-Celtic to win four straight championships, as he won titles with the Bulls from 1996 to 1998.
• The Spurs attracted record crowds for the two games at the Alamodome. Attendance was 39,514 for Game 1 and 39,554 for Game 2 (the largest crowd to see an NBA Finals game).
• This was the lowest scoring finals (165 points per game average) since the 1954 NBA Finals (145 ppg average).

See also

• 1999 NBA Playoffs

External links

• NBA History