During the second round of voting in the San Antonio Spurs Role Player Bracket Challenge, the fanbase came to a conclusion about the four most iconic wings.
With the second round of voting for the Wings sections of the San Antonio Spurs Role Player Bracket Challenge complete, we’ve narrowed it down to four Wings who will compete in the Sweet 16 of the competition. This portion of the bracket featured two upsets in the first round, but both No. 9 Chuck Person and No. 10 Marco Belinelli have been eliminated from the competition.
Nonetheless, a new upset champion came along and stepped into the next round of the competition: No. 5 Michael Finley. For the majority of his career, Finley was a thorn in the Spurs’ side as a member of the interstate rival Dallas Mavericks. He was an All-Star twice with his best season being in the 1999-2000 season. However, Finley signed with the defending-champion Spurs in 2005 and stayed in the Alamo City for 347 games across five seasons.
Finley took down No. 4 Stephen Jackson, who spent four seasons with the Spurs and won a title with the franchise in 2003. Jax was an integral member of some pivotal teams in the Alamo City, averaging 11.8 points, 3.6 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game in the championships season. Be that as it may, Jackson hasn’t been the kindest to the Spurs organization after his playing days, which has muddied his legacy in San Antonio.
One player whose legacy hasn’t been as muddied is sharpshooting extraordinaire Danny Green, who won his matchup against former Spurs player and current VP of basketball operations Brent Barry by 35.2 percent of votes. Green was cast away by the Cleveland Cavaliers early in his career and saved his legacy as a member of the silver and black. He was pivotal to the Spurs’ finals hopes in both 2013 and 2014.
Green is one of the most highly-regarded three-point shooters in franchise history and arguably set the model for the contemporary 3-and-D wing.
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Our No. 1 and No. 2 seeds cleaned up in this section of the bracket, dominating the underdogs with 96.4 percent and 95.7 percent of total votes respectively. They are Sean Elliott and Bruce Bowen—two longtime Spurs who played hard on both ends of the floor, shot the three-ball with expert precision and instilled cultural values in all of the players they’ve come into contact with.
Both of these exceptional gentlemen have their jersey numbers retired with the organization. Elliott was crucial in instilling the team’s culture into a rookie Tim Duncan, helping him get adjusted to the NBA and taking some of the attention away from him in the process.
Here’s a fun tidbit: Despite having his jersey number (12) retired back in 2012, the eight-year Spur allowed free agent LaMarcus Aldridge to don his jersey number starting in 2015 when he joined the team. If the Spurs deem Aldridge’s achievements with the Spurs worthy of jersey retirement, the No. 12 might be double-retired for two great players for the silver and black.
Next, we’ll take a look at the last four guards to make their mark on franchise history.