2003 NBA Finals

• 1. Introduction

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  The 2003 NBA Finals opened on the 4th of June in San Antonio with a question that hovered over every tip-off: could a team that many viewers found boring actually hold the country's attention? The San Antonio Spurs and New Jersey Nets met for the title after the Los Angeles Lakers, who had won the previous three championships, were eliminated in the second round. Without Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal on basketball's biggest stage, critics openly wondered whether audiences would tune in. The series would ultimately become the lowest-rated Finals in NBA history up to that point. Yet on the court, something extraordinary was unfolding. A two-man partnership was about to end, a player was about to become only the eighth person ever to win the Finals MVP award twice, and an entire era of San Antonio basketball was closing. The questions worth asking are not simply who won, but what it cost to win, who walked away, and what the victory meant for a franchise that was only in its second NBA Finals appearance.

• 2. The Road Taken

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  San Antonio finished the 2002-03 regular season 60-22, tying for the best record in the entire NBA. Their path through the playoffs was anything but smooth, however. In the opening round against the Phoenix Suns, the Spurs dropped game 1 in overtime before recovering to take the series in six games. The second round brought a collision with the three-time defending champion Los Angeles Lakers. After the first four games split evenly, a rare last-second in-and-out miss by the Lakers' clutch shooter Robert Horry in game 5 swung the momentum. The Spurs closed out the Lakers in game 6, ending what had been one of the league's dominant championship runs.

  The conference finals against the Dallas Mavericks required another comeback. San Antonio lost game 1 by three points, then won three straight, then dropped game 5 at home by a score of 103-91. In game 6 in Dallas, the Spurs trailed by 15 points in the fourth quarter before Steve Kerr buried four three-pointers in a row. San Antonio won that game 90-78 and advanced to their second Finals appearance in franchise history.

  The New Jersey Nets reached the Finals by a different route, one characterized more by dominance than struggle. After splitting the first four games with the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round, the Nets swept both the Boston Celtics and the Detroit Pistons to claim their second consecutive Eastern Conference title. Their 49-33 regular season record made them the last team with fewer than 50 wins to reach the Finals in a fully-played season until the 2022-23 Miami Heat.

• 3. Two Farewells

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  David Robinson had announced before the season began that 2002-03 would be his last year. The center who held Spurs franchise records in points, rebounds, steals and blocks had seen his productivity diminished by injuries over recent seasons. In his final year he missed 18 games and averaged only 8.5 points per game. Still, the franchise Robinson helped build finished with one of the best records in basketball.

  Steve Kerr's career also ended with the 2003 Finals. Kerr had already won three championships with the Chicago Bulls in 1996-1997 and 1998, and then won another with the Spurs in 1999. His game 6 eruption against Dallas in the conference finals was a remarkable late flourish from a veteran who had been a secondary contributor for years. At the moment the Finals concluded, Kerr joined Dennis Johnson, Bill Walton, Dennis Rodman, Ron Harper and Robert Horry as the only players to win at least two championships with two different franchises.

  Robinson's final game produced a performance that matched the moment. In the series-clinching game 6, he recorded 13 points and 17 rebounds alongside Tim Duncan. The two big men grabbed 37 rebounds between them in that game alone, more than the entire Nets team combined, which pulled down only 35. Sports Illustrated named Duncan and Robinson Sportsmen of the Year for 2003, and the series marked the first time two former ABA teams had faced each other in the NBA Finals.

• 4. Tim Duncan's Place in History

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  Tim Duncan averaged 24.2 points, 17.0 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 5.3 blocks per game across the six-game series, shooting at a 49.5 percent clip. The Nets attempted to neutralize him through persistent double-teams, which frequently allowed Duncan to find open teammates. A half-court style dominated the series on both ends; only one team broke 100 points in any game.

  In the clinching game 6, Duncan came within two blocks of a quadruple-double in an NBA Finals game, finishing with 21 points, 20 rebounds, 10 assists and 8 blocks. That near-miss stands as one of the more remarkable individual performances in Finals history. His selection as series MVP made him only the eighth player in league history to win that award twice. He joined Willis Reed, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon and Shaquille O'Neal on that list.

  The Spurs trailed in game 6 by the score of 72-63 before going on a 19-0 run to close out the game and the series. Stephen Jackson's three-pointer during that run put the lead permanently out of reach. Despite that clutch performance, the Spurs let Jackson leave as a free agent after the Finals. It was a decision that cost them a contributor but did not slow the franchise's trajectory.

• 5. The Broadcast and Its Aftermath

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  The 2003 Finals was the first to air on ABC, ending a 12-year run on NBC. As part of ESPN's media arrangement with the NBA, ESPN produced ABC's telecasts. The announcing team of Brad Nessler, Bill Walton and Tom Tolbert called the series, and it would be the only Finals assignment for both Nessler and Tolbert. Walton also worked his last Finals that year. All three were subsequently moved out of their lead roles at ABC.

  Nessler stayed on as lead voice for ESPN's NBA coverage for another season but was shifted to a backup position at ABC after the network brought in Al Michaels, who was then best known from Monday Night Football. Michaels was later paired with recently fired Orlando Magic coach Doc Rivers. The series also represented a unique scheduling moment: ABC was simultaneously broadcasting the Stanley Cup Final between the New Jersey Devils and the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, with both the NBA and NHL Finals involving teams that used the same arena in New Jersey. During game 3, Nessler acknowledged on air that ABC was preparing to broadcast game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final the following evening.

  The series was the last Finals played on a Wednesday-Friday-Sunday rotation, a schedule that had been in use since NBC began carrying the NBA in 1991. Starting with the 2004 Finals, games moved to a Thursday-Sunday-Tuesday format, which itself was later revised in 2016 to build in additional travel days.

• 6. What Came Next

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  Nets point guard Jason Kidd, who had finished second to Duncan in MVP voting during the 2003 regular season, was in the last year of his contract when the series concluded. Speculation ran through the off-season that the Spurs might pursue him, even though San Antonio already had a young Tony Parker on the roster. Kidd visited San Antonio and met with team officials before ultimately re-signing with the Nets. He remained with New Jersey until February 2008, when he was traded to the Dallas Mavericks, the team that had originally drafted him. Together with Dirk Nowitzki, Kidd led Dallas to the NBA title in 2011.

  The Nets' head coach Byron Scott was fired early in the following season after the team fell to 22-20. His replacement, Lawrence Frank, produced a 13-0 start to his tenure, the best start by a rookie head coach in the history of major North American sports, and led New Jersey to another Atlantic Division title. Still, the Nets lost to the Detroit Pistons in the conference semifinals that year. The 2003 Finals remain the Nets' most recent Finals appearance and their last one while based in New Jersey. The franchise relocated to Brooklyn prior to the 2012-13 season and has not returned to the conference finals since 2003, losing five times in the semifinals with the most recent exit coming in 2021.

  In San Antonio, despite losing Robinson, Jackson and Kerr, the Spurs won 57 games the following season before Derek Fisher's game-winner with 0.4 seconds remaining in game 5 of the conference semifinals ended their run against the Lakers. Duncan then led the franchise to three more titles in 2005-2007 and 2014. Steve Kerr, meanwhile, moved into coaching and won NBA championships in 2015, 2017-2018 and 2022 with the Golden State Warriors.