SAN ANTONIO — Bizarre has to be the word, right?
The San Antonio Spurs' 2022-23 season was filled with headlines as the team sputtered to the NBA's second-worst record, then got the luck of the draw to win the NBA Draft Lottery.
The headlines started off the court on October 28 when their home game with the Chicago Bulls was overshadowed by the misdeeds of then 19-year-old Josh Primo. He was waived by the team, shockingly, on that day, and that shock turned bizarre (there’s that word) the next day when we all learned the reason for his release.
Primo allegedly had exposed himself to several women, and most notably, with connections to the franchise, former team sports psychologist Dr. Hillary Cauthen. The Spurs were almost immediately cast into the professional sports bottom depths of employee treatment, but to their credit, they got out in front of the story. That’s what the best franchises in pro sports do, and that’s what the Spurs are.
The story dominated the headlines for several days, but it almost -- just as suddenly -- went away. The two sides settled out of court. Primo was gone. Dr. Cauthen was no longer employed by the team.
The questions about organizational workplace conditions seemingly stopped being asked. Just as quickly as it was a story, the focus suddenly back to basketball.
Oh yeah, basketball. Remember that? Remember that the Spurs started the season 5-2? Coach Pop told us during his media day availability that nobody should bet the mortgage on San Antonio to win the championship.
In that quick start before the month of November, the Spurs had a three-game win streak. Remember that? They wouldn’t have a longer one the rest of the regular season. They matched it in early December, but they never topped it, and that was probably the plan, depending on who you ask. It's just bizarre to think about.
The Spurs then preceded to lose 16 of their next 17 games. The playoff push, and that was probably unofficially never in their plans, was over.
This is what their 50th anniversary season was. Think about that. Celebrating 50 years of existence with five NBA titles and 20-plus years of league dominance with one of the worst seasons in franchise history. Was that the plan? It just might have been.
It’s not like they had set themselves up for success before the season. They had traded away some really talented players in order to pile up some draft stock: Dejounte Murray gone. Derrick White gone. And everybody knew who was on the horizon for whoever could win the draft lottery.
It didn’t take long for the Victor Wembanyama talk to accompany every Spurs pregame and postgame discussion. It was just bizarre. His professional French highlights sometimes were of more interest to diehard Spurs fans than what happened inside the AT&T Center.
It was first termed to me as "everybody understands the assignment" courtesy of our good friend Jeff Garcia from the Locked On Spurs podcast. The Spurs were never, obviously, going to come right out and say that. And the San Antonio media, myself included, didn’t have the guts to ask Spurs brass the question for the record. Or maybe we just had the smarts not to walk down that path.
Oh, did I mention the Spurs lost seven of their next 10 after their second -- and last -- three-game win streak of the season? Yup, they did, and in the most bizarre of fashions. It was rinse and repeat fourth-quarter fails like I’d never seen. It was almost as regular as clockwork.
Before the season, the Spurs lined media day chairs with a roster sheet that had names and faces of the players participating in training camp last season. I’d never seen that in my 12 seasons covering the Spurs, and I’d guess all the longtime media types in the Alamo City had never seen anything like that either.
I’m sure glad I didn’t commit that sheet to memory last September. It looked completely different by the time this season was in the books. It didn’t take me long to learn to check Twitter on every game day to look at the injury report. I had to scroll on my phone, more often than not, from top to bottom to see who was out game by game. I’d never seen anything like it.
I’m sure they were legit injuries. I’m not here to question that. But I’d suggest there was probably some method to the madness if you know what I mean. ESPN NBA writer Adrian Wojnarowski said it before the season even started. It was gonna be the race for the bottom! And we knew who the key players were gonna be in that sprint. The Spurs were right in the middle of that grouping. Bizarre? I think so over the course of the season.
A winless Rodeo Road Trip? Never thought I’d see the day. And you know what? I still haven’t. LOL They won the last game of February’s trip! 102-94 at Utah. Thank You, Jazz! We appreciate you! The Spurs then managed to only win seven of their remaining 20 games. But that was okay! The race for the bottom was full speed ahead. Detroit wasn’t messing around. Houston was playing even worse defense, if that was even possible. Everything the Spurs were hoping to accomplish, without outright saying it, was happening. It felt bizarre, but sometimes real life does.
San Antonio finished as one of the three teams with a 14% chance to land the league’s No. 1 draft pick. And just a few weeks ago, basketball lightning struck one more time! I’ll never forget it! And it’s not necessarily about winning the No. 1 draft pick, it’s the prize they’ll win on June 22...
Victor Wembanyama! The rarest of generational talents, they say. The best prospect since Lebron James. 7’3 or 4 or 5 depending on the day of the week. Basketball skills that have Spurs Nation dreaming of what might be to come! Time will tell!
Let’s hope that he lives up to the hype, because hype is all he is getting! We can’t wait! And that’s the only thing that’s not bizarre. That’s normal. #GoSpursGo
