The San Antonio Spurs are a National Basketball Association (NBA) team based in San Antonio, Texas. They are members of the Western Conference, Southwest Division.
History and League Success
The Spurs were a 1967 charter member of the American Basketball Association as the Dallas Chaparrals (except for one disastrous season in 1970-71, when the team played as the Texas Chaparrals while playing in Dallas, Fort Worth, and Lubbock); though the team had success on the court it didn't translate to attendance success.
The team relocated to San Antonio in 1973 under an unusual arrangement: the team would be "borrowed" by new ownership for three years, and would return to Dallas if the arrangement didn't work. Originally named the Gunslingers, before a single game was played the team name was changed to Spurs and adopted the familiar silver and black color scheme it uses today. Though the team struggled on the court in San Antonio, attendance was among the best in the ABA, so when the NBA agreed to absorb four successful ABA teams to start the 1976-1977 season, the Spurs were one of the four.
Although the team plays in one of the ten largest cities in the US, its media market is barely top 50 due to the lack of large suburbs. The team plays in the AT&T Center, which (as the venue also hosts the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo each February) requires the team to play an extended road trip during that month (affectionately known by fans as the "Rodeo Road Trip").
The Spurs have made six NBA Finals, winning five (1999, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2014); to date the Spurs are the only one of the four former ABA teams that merged with the NBA to win the NBA Finals.
NBA Teams
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