2003 NBA Finals

The 2003 NBA Finals was the championship round of the 2002–03 NBA season. The San Antonio Spurs of the Western Conference took on the New Jersey Nets of the Eastern Conference for the title, with the Spurs holding home court advantage. The series was played under a best-of-seven format. The Spurs won the series 4 games to 2. Spurs Forward Tim Duncan was named the Most Valuable Player of the championship series.

It was the last NBA Final to be played in the state of New Jersey; the Nets move to Brooklyn, New York for the 2012–13 season.

Television: ABC (Brad Nessler, Bill Walton, and Tom Tolbert announcing)

The 2003 Finals documentary was narrated by Rodd Houston, who later narrated three other NBA Finals series.

Background

The 2002-03 season had already started as a memorable one for the San Antonio Spurs as it was the team's first season in their new arena, SBC Center. However, as this season was one of beginnings, it was also one of endings. During the season, Spurs star David Robinson announced that this season would be his last. The NBA Finals also marked the end of Steve Kerr's career as well - he was on the Spurs, having already won four titles with the Chicago Bulls.

Over the last few seasons, injuries had slowed down Robinson's productivity to the point where he missed 18 games in his final season while averaging only 8.5 points per game. Nevertheless, Robinson would retire holding Spurs franchise career records in points, rebounds, steals and blocks. The Spurs had a very successful season, finishing 60-22, tying for the best record in the NBA that year.

The playoffs started off shaky for the Spurs as they lost game 1 of the first-round series against the Phoenix Suns in overtime. However the Spurs would bounce back to take the series in 6 games. The second round put the Spurs face-to-face with the three-time defending champion Los Angeles Lakers. After splitting the first four games, the Spurs eked out a win in game 5, benefitting from a rare last-second in-and-out miss from the Lakers' clutch-shooter Robert Horry (who would help the Spurs win a title two years later). The Spurs would eventually dispose of the Lakers in Game 6, ending the Lakers' championship run. In the Conference Finals, the Spurs would face their in-state nemesis the Dallas Mavericks. The Spurs would start off slow again, losing Game 1 by 3 points, but would take control of the series from there, taking the next three straight. After losing Game 5 at home 103-91, the Spurs would come from 15 points down in the fourth quarter in Game 6 as Steve Kerr buried four 3-pointers in a row to take the series in six games with a 90-78 win in Dallas, advancing to their second NBA Finals in franchise history.

In the meantime the New Jersey Nets, who lost to the Lakers in the Finals the previous year, were out to prove that they were serious title contenders, despite the lack of competition in the Eastern Conference. The Nets would finish the regular season 49-33, good enough to win the Atlantic Division and clinch the number 2 seed in the East. After splitting the first four games with the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round, the Nets would take complete control, winning the series in 6 games. From then on, the Nets had no trouble making a return to the NBA Finals, sweeping the Boston Celtics and the Detroit Pistons to win their second straight Eastern Conference championship.

2003 NBA Playoffs

Regular season series

Both teams split the two meetings, each won by the home team:

Series summary

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.

Game 4 at Continental Airlines Arena was not a sellout.

This is the last Finals series to be played on a Wednesday-Friday-Sunday rotation which was used starting in 1991 when NBC began carrying the NBA. Starting with the 2004 series, all Finals are now Thursday-Sunday-Tuesday.

2003 NBA Finals roster

San Antonio Spurs roster

New Jersey Nets roster

Features

While the series received the usual hype of any Finals, it was not heavily anticipated due to the absence of the Lakers, who had won the previous three finals. The Spurs did have a star in Tim Duncan, but at the time he was criticized as being boring compared to flashier players such as Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal.

The series was largely centered around the half-court offense and defense of each team, with only 1 team breaking 100 points in the series. The Nets constantly double-teamed Tim Duncan, and at one point quadruple-teamed him, allowing him to find open teammate or score over the top of the multiple defenders.

Nets point guard Jason Kidd, second to Tim Duncan in MVP voting during the 2003 season, was in the last year of his contract with the team, leading to speculation that the Spurs (a team that could afford signing him) would pursue him in the free agency following the 2003 Finals despite already having future All-Star Tony Parker on the roster. The underlying story of whether or not Kidd would be in a Spurs uniform the following season continued into the off-season. Kidd would visit San Antonio and speak with team officials, but ultimately resigned with the Nets.

Perhaps the lasting memory of the series is David Robinson retiring as a champion. In the clinching Game 6, Robinson had 13 points and 17 rebounds to complement Tim Duncan on the inside. In that game, the Spurs trailed at one point 72-63 before going on a 19-0 run to put the game away and take the series. Stephen Jackson's three pointer during the run held the lead permanently. The Spurs' win denied New Jersey from having both NBA and NHL titles in the same year.

Tim Duncan became the 8th player in NBA history to win the Finals MVP award a second time. He joined the list of Willis Reed, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon and Shaquille O'Neal. In the series clinching game, Duncan came two blocks shy of a quadruple-double in an NBA Finals match, an extremely rare feat, finishing with 22 points, 20 rebounds, 10 assists, and 8 blocks. Interestingly enough, David Robinson recorded the last quadruple-double in NBA history with the Spurs.

Steve Kerr joined Robert Horry, Dennis Rodman and Ron Harper as the only players to win at least two championships with two franchises. Kerr won three with the Chicago Bulls (1996–98) and another with the Spurs in 1999.

Impact of the Series

• Despite a great performance, particularly a barrage of three-pointers in the clinching Game 6 by Spurs swingman Stephen Jackson, the Spurs let Jackson leave as a free agent. Jackson would later return in 2012. Spurs veterans Steve Kerr, Danny Ferry, and most notably David Robinson retired after the 2003 Finals.
• Duncan and Robinson would be named Sportsmen of the Year by Sports Illustrated for 2003.
• This series would mark the first time that two former ABA teams pitted off against each other in the NBA Finals. Four years prior, though, the Spurs made it to the NBA Finals in the shortened 1998-99 NBA Season and won the championship.

Aftermath

The Nets had an inconsistent start to the 2003-04 NBA season, and with a 22-20 record early in the season they fired head coach Byron Scott. Lawrence Frank would take over and lead the Nets to another Atlantic Division title by winning 47 games, highlighted by a 13-0 start, the best start for a rookie head coach in sports history. Despite that, however, the Nets would lose to the eventual NBA champion Detroit Pistons in seven games of the conference semifinals. To this day, this is the Nets' last finals appearance.

Jason Kidd remained with the Nets until he was traded in February 2008 to the team he was originally drafted to, the Dallas Mavericks. Kidd, along with teammate Dirk Nowitzki, led the Mavericks to the NBA title in 2011. Kenyon Martin was sent to the Denver Nuggets after the 2003-04 season, while Richard Jefferson eventually joined the Spurs in the 2009-10 season, after a brief one-year stint with the Milwaukee Bucks.

Despite the departures of Robinson, Jackson and Kerr, the Spurs still managed to win 57 games, aided by Tim Duncan's strong play. However, they were ousted in six games by the Los Angeles Lakers, highlighted by Derek Fisher's game winner with 0.4 seconds left in Game 5 of the conference semifinals. In the four years following Robinson's retirement, Duncan would lead the Spurs to two more NBA titles, in 2005 and 2007.

Television coverage

This NBA Finals was aired on ABC, after a 30 years of absence for ABC Sports carrying the NBA.

Until 2007, this was the lowest rated finals in NBA history.

This was also the only year that ABC broadcast both the NBA and the Stanley Cup Finals that involved teams from one city in the same year. During ABC's broadcast of Game 3, Brad Nessler, Tom Tolbert, and Bill Walton said that ABC was in a unique situation getting ready for both that game and Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Devils and the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim the following night.^[1][2] Gary Thorne, Bill Clement, and John Davidson mentioned this the following night and thanked Nessler, Tolbert, and Walton for promoting ABC's broadcast of Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals.^[3]

See also

• 2003 NBA Playoffs
• 2003 Stanley Cup Finals

References

External links

• Official website