Magic stopped playing for the Lakers in 91 (they didn't make the Finals again until 2000). Malone made the Finals in 1997-98. What happened to him all those other years in between? Let me guess, Rockets were better (94-95), Sonics (96) were better, Blazers were better (92), Suns were better (93)?
Utah still had great teams and their star came up short. There is nothing wrong with accepting that. San Antonio wasn't looked at as a winning organization until Duncan made them one. All you have to do is listen to the people in that organization talk about Tim.
Utah never had great teams. They had Malone & Stockton
And San Antonio was winning 60 games with Dennis Rodman, David Robinson, & Sean Elliot. They had ONE terrible season in like the last 25, the year that David Robinson tore his knee up and they ended up getting Tim Duncan because of that.
Dude, they won 56, 55, 47, 49, 55, 62, 59, and 20 games the years before they got Tim Duncan. They were a perennial 50 win team BEFORE Duncan.
So pop was hall of fame status when Duncan arrived? Let's not forget he was 1 game from being fired. Dumbass. Past prime d Rob woth back problems and Parker and ginobili, who weren't even established players till Duncan made them. That's your argument? Duncan made the Spurs who they are today. He's the foundation. He made pop, ginobili and Parker. Just another typical Duncan hater.
Dude, shut the fukk up. Aint nobody a "Duncan hater"
Dude, Pop is a disciple of Larry Brown, who's probably (other than Pop) the best coach of the past 40 years. He was more than equipped to take over the team.
The Spurs organization were a perennial 50 win team BEFORE Duncan and Popovich. They only had that one terrible year because David Robinson got hurt. Look at my post above. They were winning 60 games a few years earlier
you are saying as if karl malone played on the worst squad ever and as if tim duncan played in the best squad ever
the 99 championship david robinson was way past his prime, the rest of the squad was meh....tim was easily the leader of that team and they handled the west very easy
the 2003 tim duncan carried his team on some historical level where tony parker was still wayy too inconsistent, had speedy claxton taking his minutes
so if we take away those stacked championships tim still has two titles where he was easily the very much leader of the team
karl malone played with hall of famer john stockton his whole career and sloan is considered one of the best coaches in nba history too. They were losing to the teams worse than chicago bulls. They lost to supersonics multiple times, houston rockets, phoenix suns, portland trailblazers. You name it
Tim in his prime would only lose to prime lakers and he also lost to 06 mavs that went to the finals, before him going past his prime. Think about it. Karl could not take over the games the way Tim Duncan did. Him and Stockton were one of the best duos ever in regular season, but in playoffs they often would come up short because they didnt have go-to moves where a player could single-handedly take over the games. Tim was THAT nikka, watch his 03 run.
Dude, the 99 season was the strike season. The fukking knicks made it to the finals with Allen Houston and Latrell Sprewell & larry Johnson.
That wasn't a normal season
And come on, Jerry Sloan is NOT considered one of the greatest coaches in history the same way that Gregg Popovich, Phil Jackson, Larry Brown, and Red Auerbach are. He's lower down that list of "great", but not 'all-time great" coaches.
And Malone & Stockton are ALL Utah ever had because, NOBODY WANTS TO PLAY IN UTAH
And like I said earlier, the San Antonio Spurs are the best run organization in sports. Why do you think they're going on this year without Duncan as if nothing even happened? The dude wasn't a great player for the past decade of his career and they still won.
He didn't average 20pts & 10rebs for almost the last decade of his career.
You just can't argue that Malone having Stockton and having to play in Utah had as many advantages as Duncan did playing for a perennial winning organization that's good with or without him, has arguably the GOAT coach, and other Hall of Famers
And let's not forget the elephant in the room, Tim Duncan never had to play Michael Jordan in his prime.
San Antonio might not have shyt either, if their primes intersected with Jordan's like Malone, Stockton, Barkley, Dominique, Ewing, etc. . .