San Antonio Spurs: 21-year anniversary of Gregg Popovich’s win-or-be-fired game

21 years ago today, the San Antonio Spurs came into Houston under the idea that a loss would lead to Gregg Popovich’s firing. That pivotal moment in history deserves a second look.

There was something peculiar in the air as the San Antonio Spurs prepared for an early-season tilt against the Houston Rockets on Mar. 2, 1999.

David Robinson, whose pre-game ritual rarely went beyond a prayer, rallied the team together into a huddle for an unusual, but galvanizing speech, that — according to teammates — left him foaming at the mouth. The reason? After opening what was supposed to be a title-contending season with only six wins over 14 games, San Antonio Spurs players were forced to stew over a rumor that they were sure was an ultimatum:

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Go into Houston, home of Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler and Charles Barkley. Win the game. And should you fall short of that goal, this may very well be the last game Gregg Popovich will coach as a San Antonio Spur.

21 years later, the Popovich era has graced us with thousands upon thousands of memories, and — to put a number to it, 281 postseason games and 34 contests in the NBA Finals — within that, the phrase “must-win” has found itself tightly attached.

It’s hard to visualize today: without first getting past an 8-6 Houston Rockets team two seasons removed from its last series victory, how much of what we’d come to know is actually possible?

Let’s set the scene. Today, we view the 1998-99 Spurs as mere breadwinners of the 50-game lockout season. When that chapter closed, the San Antonio Spurs finished 37-13, and here’s something that gets oft-forgotten today.

That postseason, the Spurs provided their best 2001 Lakers impression, buzz sawing through the ‘99 postseason with a 15-2 record (eight of those wins by double-digits), and a point differential of +7.3. For reference, that number would rank behind only the Milwaukee Bucks and the Los Angeles Lakers today.

But before the champagne popping and championship parades, the Spurs found themselves on a highway to nowhere. Unable to capitalize on the momentum of a 56-win season in 1997-98, the Spurs had fallen to 6-8. Worst of all, they’d been defenseless against the teams they needed to beat, dropping games to five of the top six teams in the Western Conference at the time.

Stuck in basketball hinterland, the Spurs front office began to look around, their sights set on bringing in a talented, former NBA floor general by the name of Doc Rivers. You might have heard of him.

To put into perspective how crazy this was: by 1998-99, Rivers had never before held a head coaching job. His foot was in the door, perhaps in large part because of the fact that he finished out his career backing up another future guard-turned-coach in Avery Johnson.

By then, Rivers was covering the Spurs broadcast TV games, and mutual vibes believed that if the Spurs were on the losing end of that Spurs-Rockets game, the toasty end seat on the Spurs bench would no longer belong to the man many believe now to be the greatest coach of all-time.

In the summer of 2016, ESPN.com’s Marc Stein did a feature on the relationship of Tim Duncan and Gregg Popovich, where some of those player thoughts are highlighted.

"“David [Robinson] usually didn’t say much beyond a prayer in the huddle when we brought it all in, but [before this game] David was saying, ‘We’ve got to get it together, we’ve got to do this, this is a big game.’“If we lost that game, they were going to fire Pop and bring in Doc … that was the rumor. I would have to say it was real because of the gravity in the locker room. I’ll never forget it.”– Malik Rose, Spurs forward (1997 – 2005)"

Spurs guard Steve Kerr echoed as such on NBATV, speaking on how San Antonio entered that season as title contenders, but quickly caught eyes for Rivers after the slow start. His guard teammate, Avery Johnson, said the team had become so worried, they met at Popovich’s home to discuss the ramifications of that upcoming game in person.

"“There was a lot of noise about Pop being potentially replaced by Doc, so David [Robinson] and I went to Pop’s house before we got on the flight to go to Houston. Pop talked to us and … what I will say is we came out of there feeling so strongly about Pop that we knew we had to go win that game.”– Avery Johnson, Spurs guard (1991 – 2001)"

If I could be a fly on the wall the day the Spurs players huddled up and went to Gregg Popovich’s house the day before the team boarded the flight to visit their cross-town Rocket rivals; what feels important to remember today is that Gregg Popovich wasn’t the Gregg Popovich he is now.

Using context and imagination, Popovich was probably known more for his time as an intelligence officer in Turkey, or for losing to a team that had dropped 310 straight games during his time coaching the Pomona Sagehens. A different story for a different day, but it paints the picture of how some viewed Popovich, even after a 56-26 season in 1997-98. These days, that criticism is mostly desuetude. Then, though, the pressure was on.

The team meeting that Johnson orchestrated appeared to work. The San Antonio Spurs bought mental fortitude with one-day shipping; they defeated the Rockets in 99-82 fashion, and put their days as a sub-.500 team behind them for not only this season but for the next two decades.

The record is no longer as sparkling, but until this time last year, the Spurs had only owned a losing record for 65 days out of a possible 22 years.

Game footage of this game is scarce, but one look at the box score, and you get a feel for the sense of urgency the Spurs played with that night. All five Spurs’ starters scored in double-figures, and San Antonio bruted its way into 18 offensive rebounds against a frontline of Olajuwon and Barkley.

In the short term, the Spurs rebounded, literally and figuratively. They ended the 1998-99 season by winning 31 of 36. In the long-term periscope, it’s worth at least using your imagination and wondering how much of the San Antonio Spurs’ fate over the next two decades could’ve been shifted if one 48-minute game in March of 1999 hadn’t gone their way.