By Jeff Garcia, Project Spurs.com
he San Antonio Spurs won their first of four NBA titles in 1999 over the New York Knicks in a lockout-shortened season. That led to ex-NBA coach Phil Jackson claim the Spurs' title deserved an asterisk since it came in an truncated season. Since then, that label is always mentioned when looking back at the Spurs' first title and draws the ire of Spurs fans whenever it is thrown in their face.
Fast forward to this season and the Spurs are looking strong, and are on the verge of sweeping the Utah Jazz in their first-round series as their march to a fifth championship continues in another shortened season affected by this summer's lockout.
And should the Spurs win it all this season, the asterisk talk will more than likely be brought up yet again.
However, the Miami Heat are also looking like a legit champion and could be the final team standing in June and they to might be given the unfortunate label should they win it all.
But in LeBron James' opinion, a short season doesn't take away from any title, and says the Spurs' '99 title should not be lessened because of the short season.
“I don’t discredit the effort San Antonio had when they won it in ’99 after the lockout,” LeBron said. “We all know Gregg Popovich is an unbelievable coach and Tim Duncan is an unbelievable player. It shouldn’t matter. They won multiple (titles) after that so are we going to say that first one wasn’t good enough? I don’t think that’s true at all.
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