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NBA: Who is the best duo from each franchise’s history

By Christopher Jeter

CHICAGO, IL - MAY 6: Scottie Pippen #33 of the Chicago Bulls is seen talking to Michael Jordan #23 of the Chicago Bulls during the game against the Atlanta Hawks on May 6, 1997 at the United Center in Chicago, IL. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 1997 NBAE (Photo by Scott Cunningham/NBAE via Getty Images)
CHICAGO, IL - MAY 6: Scottie Pippen #33 of the Chicago Bulls is seen talking to Michael Jordan #23 of the Chicago Bulls during the game against the Atlanta Hawks on May 6, 1997 at the United Center in Chicago, IL. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 1997 NBAE (Photo by Scott Cunningham/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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(Photos by D. Clarke Evans/NBAE via Getty Images)
(Photos by D. Clarke Evans/NBAE via Getty Images) /

Best duo from San Antonio Spurs: Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili

Like the Blazers, the San Antonio Spurs have successfully subverted theory of small-market teams operating at a disadvantage compared to their big-city counterparts, especially over the last 20 years.

You can correlate some of that success to draft luck, but for a team as consistent as the Spurs, it takes the right mix of good fortune and shrewd player evaluation to keep this train running.

Look at Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili, for example. While both men are future Hall of Famers, their path to this team represents the hard work that goes into scouting and mining value that other organizations don’t see and the flukiness of being in the right place at the right time.

Duncan’s route to San Antonio fulls under fate. The Wake Forest star was the consensus number one overall pick in 1997. The David Robinson-led Spurs, being a perennial playoff team, ostensibly had no chance of landing the acclaimed big man, but when Robinson missed the entire 1996-97 season, the Spurs fell to 20-62 and that blip of inadequacy netted them “The Admiral’s” heir apparent.

Ginobili sits on the other end of the scale. The Spurs drafted him a couple of years after Duncan with the 57th overall pick. In one of the earliest examples of “drafting and stashing”, Ginobili declined a rookie deal with the Spurs and played in Italy for three more years before coming over in 2002.

The rest was history: Duncan became one of the greatest big men in the sport’s history, Ginobili became one of the best international NBA players of all-time, they finished with .179 combined WS/48, and — along with fellow future HOFer Tony Parker, won four NBA titles together.