The 1996–97 San Antonio Spurs season was the 21st season for the San Antonio Spurs in the National Basketball Association, and their 30th season as a franchise.
Season summary
Off-season During the off-season, the Spurs signed free agent and former All-Star forward Dominique Wilkins, who previously played overseas in Greece last season, and re-signed former Spurs guard Vernon Maxwell, who won two NBA championships with the Houston Rockets.
Regular season However, despite the addition of Wilkins and Maxwell, All-Star center David Robinson only played just six games due to back and foot injuries, while three-point specialist Chuck Person was out for the entire regular season due to an off-season back injury. The Spurs struggled losing 13 of their first 15 games of the season in November, which included an eight-game losing streak. After 18 games, head coach Bob Hill was fired and replaced with General Manager Gregg Popovich; Popovich would remain as head coach of the Spurs until 2025. The team dealt with additional injuries as Sean Elliott only played just 39 games due to a knee injury, and Charles D. Smith only appeared in just 19 games also with a knee injury. The Spurs held a 11–34 record at the All-Star break, and then later on lost their final six games of the season, finishing in sixth place in the Midwest Division with an awful 20–62 record; the team failed to qualify for the NBA playoffs for the first time since the 1988–89 season. The Spurs had the worst team defensive rating in the NBA.
Wilkins appeared in 63 games with the Spurs, averaging 18.2 points and 6.4 rebounds per game, while Robinson averaged 17.7 points and 8.5 rebounds per game during his short six-game stint, and Elliott averaged 14.9 points per game. In addition, Maxwell provided the team with 12.9 points per game and led them with 115 three-point field goals, while Vinny Del Negro contributed 12.3 points per game, and Avery Johnson provided with 10.5 points, 6.8 assists and 1.3 steals per game. Meanwhile, Monty Williams showed improvement averaging 9.0 points per game, while Will Perdue provided with 8.7 points, 9.8 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game, Carl Herrera contributed 8.0 points and 4.5 rebounds per game, and Greg Anderson averaged 3.9 points and 5.5 rebounds per game.
Wilkins finished tied in seventh place in Sixth Man of the Year voting, while Williams finished tied in twelfth place in Most Improved Player voting. The Spurs finished eleventh in the NBA in home-game attendance, with an attendance of 706,641 at the Alamodome during the regular season.
Aftermath Following the season, Wilkins left to play overseas in Italy, while Maxwell was released to free agency, Anderson re-signed as a free agent with the Atlanta Hawks, and Smith retired.
Since the Spurs joined the NBA in 1976, this was only the fourth time they missed the NBA playoffs. Until 2020, this was the Spurs' last season in which they failed to qualify for the playoffs, due in large part to turning the lottery pick they earned in 1997 into perennial All-Star Tim Duncan, who would create a dynasty that won them their first championship two years later, then four more championships in 2003, 2005, 2007, and 2014.
Draft picks
The Spurs did not have any draft picks in 1996.
Roster
Roster notes Small forward Chuck Person was on the injured reserve list due to a back injury, and missed the entire regular season.
Regular season The Spurs were trying to continue the success of the last two seasons which had records of 59-23 and 62-20 respectively. However they would finish a dismal 20–62, Scoring leader David Robinson was injured, and was only able to play just six games due to back and foot injuries. Also injured was forward and three-point specialist Chuck Person, who missed the entire season with an off-season back injury. Head coach Bob Hill was fired midway through the season after starting 3–15, being replaced by Gregg Popovich, who would finish 17–47. He would later be appointed head coach after the season's end. This would be the only losing season for Gregg Popovich and the first losing season for the Spurs since the 1988-89 NBA season. However the lone silver lining in this season would be winning the number one pick for the 1997 NBA draft.
Season standings
z - clinched division title y - clinched division title x - clinched playoff spot
Player statistics
Ragular season PlayerC82 48 1,659 448 34 63 67 322 20.2 5.5 .4 .8 .8 3.9PG 80 6 1,454 123 254 82 16 577 18.2 1.5 3.2 1.0 .2 7.2PG 76 76 2,472 147 513 96 15 800 32.5 1.9 6.8 1.3 .2 10.5PF 75 58 1,837 340 50 62 53 597 24.5 4.5 .7 .8 .7 8.0SG 72 53 2,243 210 231 59 7 886 31.2 2.9 3.2 .8 .1 12.3SG 72 31 2,068 159 153 87 19 929 28.7 2.2 2.1 1.2 .3 12.9C 65 34 1,918 638 38 32 102 565 29.5 9.8 .6 .5 1.6 8.7SF 65 26 1,345 206 91 55 52 588 20.7 3.2 1.4 .8 .8 9.0SF 63 26 1,945 402 119 39 31 1,145 30.9 6.4 1.9 .6 .5 18.2SF 39 39 1,393 190 124 24 24 582 35.7 4.9 3.2 .6 .6 14.9†PF 38 0 614 211 26 16 13 146 16.2 5.6 .7 .4 .3 3.8PF 19 7 329 65 14 13 22 88 17.3 3.4 .7 .7 1.2 4.6PF 10 0 59 8 2 1 1 4 5.9 .8 .2 .1 .1 .4†SF 7 0 69 9 1 8 2 26 9.9 1.3 .1 1.1 .3 3.7C 6 6 147 51 8 6 6 106 24.5 8.5 1.3 1.0 1.0 17.7†SF 6 0 62 7 1 2 0 17 10.3 1.2 .2 .3 .0 2.8†PF 5 0 48 7 0 0 0 13 9.6 1.4 .0 .0 .0 2.6†SG 3 0 36 4 1 0 1 13 12.0 1.3 .3 .0 .3 4.3†PF 3 0 24 5 0 1 0 10 8.0 1.7 .0 .3 .0 3.3†SF 1 0 8 0 1 0 0 4 8.0 .0 1.0 .0 .0 4.0
References
See also 1996-97 NBA season