The Spurs Villain Tournament started with many strong contenders in the Haters, Killers, Former Players, and Dirty Players categories. For the most part, the favorites have advanced. Now things get even more interesting as the heavyweights of each region face each other.
The higher seeds dominated, for the most part, with only a couple of surprises so far. The favorites are clear, but there’s room for upsets as the tournament continues. The Elite 8 round should be a good test of whether the juggernauts that everyone expects to see in the finals will get there without much opposition.
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To spice things up, I’ll be playing Devil’s Advocate in the matchup descriptions, trying to make the case for the lower seeds to pull off the upset, but ultimately the choice is yours. Without further ado, let’s take a look at the participants that have made it this far, and don’t forget to vote!
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Spurs Killers Finals 1. Derek Fisher vs. 2. Ray Allen
There were no upsets in the Spurs Killers region, with the top two seeds advancing. Two heartbreaking shots, two potential championships snatched away. Derek Fisher robbed the Spurs of a potential repeat. So did Ray Allen, though, if you think about it.
San Antonio was the best team in both 2013 and 2014. Everyone knows that they were ready to roll out the trophy in Game 6, as the Spurs seemed to have it in the bag, before the Allen shot. In 2014, the Spurs got even better, and while the loss is often credited with motivating them, the talent for a repeat was there. It’s not crazy to think the Silver and Black could have won two in a row had Allen missed, getting Tim Duncan the one achievement he couldn’t secure and Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili five titles.
As for Fisher, while other incidents contribute to his title of Spurs villain, 0.4 stands out most, and it was in the Western Conference Semifinals. The Pistons absolutely destroyed that Lakers team in the 2024 Finals. Are we sure San Antonio would have prevailed had they advanced? The context of the Fisher shot (the Big Three’s prime, the rivalry with Los Angeles, the concrete chance of a repeat, the rule change afterwards) all make it seem like the more painful shot. But Allen’s is at least comparable.
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Dirty Players Finals: 1. Zaza Pachulia vs. 2. Karl Malone
Pachulia is often credited with ending the longest stretch of success in modern professional sports by taking out Kawhi Leonard in Game 1 of the Conference Finals. For the Spurs, beating the Warriors that year was unlikely but not impossible, and the post-Duncan future was looking bright. Nothing was the same after Leonard’s injury.
What’s often ignored is that it wasn’t Leonard’s ankle that sidelined him to start the next season and, knowing what we know now, it’s possible that Kawhi would have forced his way out anyway. Even back then, there were loud rumors that Leonard’s ultimate goal was always to go back to Los Angeles. While undoubtedly dirty, by sliding under Leonard, Pachulia probably only cost the Spurs a couple of wins against the Warriors in that series.
Without the Kawhi leaving factor, the dirtiness of the Pachulia play pales in comparison to Karl Malone, a notoriously terrible human, knocking David Robinson out with an elbow to the back of the head. Sure, Malone apologized, but the sheer recklessness of the move is shocking, even today. Does being dirtier, doing more damage, and taking down one of the most beloved Spurs of all time make Malone a bigger villain than Zaza? Up for you to decide.
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Former Spurs Finals: 1. Kawhi Leonard vs. 2. Stephen Jackson
The unquestionable favorite to win it all advanced with ease to the finals of his region. Kawhi Leonard left the Spurs in the worst possible way, leading to a period of mediocrity the fanbase was not used to. To make things worse, he went on to win a title with the Raptors. His bona fides as a villain can’t be argued.
The one positive thing that can be said for Kawhi, however, is that once he got out, he seemed to completely move on from the Spurs. He didn’t talk much about them, in part because he simply doesn’t talk much about anything, and seemingly maintained a good relationship with Gregg Popovich, who (unsuccessfully) tried to shield him from the boos of the crowd in one of his visits. While he clearly subjected the franchise and the fans to a horrendous year of rumors and had a messy exit, he did his damage once and then went on with his career.
Jackson’s case is the opposite. He simply couldn’t hurt the franchise as much as a superstar could in just one instance, but he had two different stints that ended poorly and has a media career that often involves trashing the franchise or his former teammates. He first left in 2003 after winning a title, weakening a team that would attempt to repeat. He was looking for his first big payday, so that one is forgivable. Jack letting his ego potentially disrupt the locker room in 2014 to the point of having to be waived close to the playoffs in his second stint, however, is harder to stomach. And then there are the many, many times he has badmouthed the Spurs.
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Is that enough to beat Kawhi? Probably not, but had Leonard left in more amicable circumstances, Jack would have a case to win the region.
Spurs Haters: 4. Uncle Dennis Robertson vs. 3. Mark Cuban
The Spurs Haters side of the bracket had the big upsets. Top seeds Phil Jackson and David Stern are nowhere to be found, in part because their villainy feels like old news now and in part because there were a lot of strong contenders in their region, like our two finalists, Uncle Dennis and Mark Cuban.
Robertson frankly looks unstoppable. He’s a newer villain, and his name is fresh in everyone’s mind after the Kawhi Leonard salary cap circumvention scandal that was recently resolved, resulting in a five-year ban for Uncle Dennis. The way he handled Kawhi’s exit from San Antonio was terrible, and he was happy to talk once things were going well for his nephew in Toronto. It’s hard to make a case for Cuban, who has said a lot of negative things about the Spurs over the years but couldn’t really seriously hurt them, over someone who did direct damage to the franchise.
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But is that how we should look at Uncle Dennis? Kawhi Leonard was 26 years old when he forced his way out, hardly a kid. It was easier then to villainize Robertson because Kawhi was quiet and beloved before his heel turn, and to be fair, Uncle Dennis has not helped his reputation at all since then, but the reality is, he was acting on Kawhi’s behalf. And if Robertson is the actual villain, the man who orchestrated everything in the shadows, unbeknownst to his nephew, then why is Leonard also in this bracket? Something to consider before voting.
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