1999 NBA Champion: San Antonio Spurs
Season Salary Cap: $30,000,000
Championship-Caliber Contract: Tim Duncan
The 1999 Finals had to contend with the fallout from the lockout and Michael Jordan’s second, but not final, retirement. Some might place an asterisk next to this championship, but I’d wager they’re the same people that think Kobe was better than Duncan (it shouldn’t even be a question). This Spurs team was a legitimate force and Duncan’s ‘99 season is one of the greatest Championship Caliber Contract of the 90s.
When you place an asterisk next to the ‘99 champion Spurs it better be to indicate a spelling correction from a previous text. Without Duncan, the Spurs would have had almost no chance at their first title. The Spurs, outside of a 22-year-old Duncan, were a veteran team.
His youth and elite production allowed the Spurs to keep David Robinson fresh through a pressure-cooked season. If a full 82 games had been played this Spurs team would be looked at in a completely different light. After starting the season 6-8 the Spurs went 31-5 the rest of the way, then steamrolled their way through the playoffs, and dropped only 2 games on their way to a championship.
The 1999 season crammed in 50 games between February 5th and May 5th and then a full playoff schedule. Duncan played every game, averaged almost 40 minutes, and was the Spurs best player all season and throughout the playoffs. His 8.7 Win Shares, if prorated to an 82 game season would have been 14.2 plus his 3.7 postseason Win Shares, were worth $12.96 million, 43.2 percent of the cap.
Duncan was still on his rookie deal and at only $3.413 million, 11.37 percent of the cap, was an absolute steal. For whatever reason Tim Duncan and his Spurs teams are overlooked. Duncan, in his second year in the NBA, had already been the best player on a championship team and would do so four more times over his almost two-decade career. The big fundamental wasn’t sexy but, you know what they say, “Banners hang forever, while your horrible sports takes wither away in the ether known as twitter.”
Salary Cap 1994-1999:
The growth of the salary cap from 1994 to 1999 played a crucial part role in the championship teams of this era. The salary cap nearly doubled from $15.964 million to $30 million over the five year period. Contracts that were signed prior to the explosion in the cap went from market rate to bargains, as Scottie Pippen can attest to. The final contract, Tim Duncan’s, ushered in the value of the rookie contract.
Duncan was the number 1 pick and made far less than he was worth. Drafting a truly great player meant that teams could lock in elite production for a fraction of the cost. The cap spike from 1995 to 1996 from $15.964 million to $23 million may seem small by today’s standards but it represented a 69.4 percent increase in the salary cap and was similar to the famous salary cap spike in the summer of 2016. It’s no coincidence that following both spikes a dynasty emerged because the sudden growth creates championship-caliber contracts.