The San Antonio Spurs became one of the most memorable teams in NBA history during the 90s, starting their incredible 20-year run in the association with David Robinson and Tim Duncan. After that, they added more pieces to the squad, improving their level every season, and becoming a perennial championship contender.
Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili would create a Big 3 with Duncan in San Antonio that led the Spurs to four championships in five trips to the Finals. They were really great together, but at some point, Tony could have left the squad to make room for another legendary point guard that was very close to joining the Spurs.
Following the 2003 NBA Finals, Jason Kidd met with Tim Duncan and Gregg Popovich, who tried to recruit him to Texas, but the player decided to run it back with the Nets, only for the front office to dismantle the team and take the chance to win a championship away from Kidd.
Jason Kidd Reveals He Almost Joined The Spurs In 2003
During a recent appearance on Showtime’s All the Smoke, Kidd talked about the time he was close to joining the Spurs and creating a superteam that could have won more than three titles together (31:40).
“How close were you to coming the year after we played in the finals?” former Spurs player Stephen Jackson asked.
“I was in. So I meet with Tim and Pop, and I’m in,” Kidd said. “The one thing that was a hold up was, and it was a small thing was I was like ‘Man, I gotta sit here and watch you guys get the rings after just losing to you.’ That’s just one game, and we’ll get past it and we’ll have opportunities to win more. But then the loyalty of building something in Jersey and ‘I think we could get there,’ but not knowing the business side of what was coming down. They traded K-Mart that following year and things fell apart fast. But to be a Spur, that was very, very close.”
Kidd wanted to be loyal to the Nets and show people that he could get the job done, but the front office had different plans. After two trips to the Finals, they started dismantling the team, leaving Kidd with no help, opening the door for other teams like the Detroit Pistons, Boston Celtics, and others to compete for the Larry O’Brien trophy.
We’ll never know how he would have fared in San Antonio, but Jackson was pretty confident that they could have done incredible teams together.
