Back in 1967, a pro basketball franchise called the Dallas Chaparrals began play in the ABA. Six years later it was rechristened the San Antonio Spurs, who in 1976 moved over to the NBA.
It would take another 23 years for the Spurs to win their first league championship, in 1999. That ended up being the first of five over the next 16 seasons. Once one of the league’s more nondescript franchises, the Spurs climbed to the top of the professional basketball mountain and, even more impressively, found a way to stay there.
If that evolution sounds familiar, you’ll understand why, in the winter of 2013, Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens used the occasion of the Ducks’ Alamo Bowl appearance to schedule a meeting with Spurs general manager and 2013-14 NBA executive of the year R.