1
Jul
Team Profile
San Antonio Spurs: Five things you need to know
Image created using AI Technology
Three Australians have won NBA titles with San Antonio, more than at any other single franchise.
- Five Australians have played for San Antonio, and three of them won championships here.
- Andrew Gaze won the 1999 title, with Patty Mills and Aron Baynes winning in 2014.
- The Spurs went 62-20 and reached the 2026 NBA Finals, losing 4-1 to New York.
No franchise in the NBA has meant more to Australian basketball than the San Antonio Spurs.
Five Australians have worn the jersey. Three of them left with a championship ring. Andrew Gaze in 1999, then Patty Mills and Aron Baynes together in 2014.
Put another way: of the 10 NBA championship rings Australians have collected, three were won in San Antonio.
If there is a spiritual home for Australians in the NBA, this is it.
Australians who have played for the San Antonio Spurs
Patty Mills is the most significant Australian in franchise history.
The guard from Canberra arrived after a start at Portland and became a fixture of the Gregg Popovich era, staying the better part of a decade. In the 2013-14 championship season he played a team-high 81 regular-season games and 23 playoff games, averaging 10.2 points and shooting 42.5% from three.
His defining moment came in Game 5 of the 2014 NBA Finals, when a 14-point third quarter helped San Antonio close out Miami.
"He's a special guy. His energy has been important to us all year long. He's a real significant reason why we got to the finals," Popovich said.
Mills went on to become the first Australian to play 1000 NBA games.
Aron Baynes won the same ring.
The centre played meaningful minutes through that 2014 playoff run, including a playoff career-high 10 points and seven rebounds against Portland in the Western Conference semi-finals. His NBA career ran 16 years across five clubs, and he was a constant in the Boomers side that finally won an Olympic medal in Tokyo.
Andrew Gaze got there first.
The Australian icon was part of the San Antonio squad that beat the New York Knicks in five games to win the 1999 championship, the franchise's first. It was one line in a 22-year career that made him the most decorated Australian basketballer of his generation.
"There is nobody more deserving of legend status than Andrew Gaze. His contribution to the NBL, and to the sport of basketball in Australia, is unmatched," NBL commissioner Jeremy Loeliger said, in comments published by basketball.com.au.
Shane Heal and Jock Landale complete the list.
Heal, a 183cm guard with one of the great outside shots in Australian basketball, played for Minnesota and San Antonio. Landale, the 211cm Boomers centre, had a spell in San Antonio as part of a career that has also taken in Houston and Phoenix, and he now plays for Atlanta.
2026-27 team snapshot
San Antonio is back among the best teams in basketball, and one win short of the top.
The Spurs went 62-20 last season, second in the Western Conference, and reached the NBA Finals for the first time since 2014. Victor Wembanyama announced himself in the postseason with 35 points in his playoff debut against Portland.
They swept past Portland 4-1, then produced the series of the year against Oklahoma City, beating the defending champions 4-3 and winning Game 7 in Oklahoma City 111-103. Wembanyama had 22 points, seven rebounds and seven assists in the decider.
The Finals did not go the same way. New York won the first two in San Antonio, the Spurs took Game 3 at Madison Square Garden 115-111, and then Game 4 turned the series. San Antonio led by 29 points in the third quarter and lost 107-106 on an OG Anunoby tip-in with 1.2 seconds left, the largest comeback in Finals history. New York closed it out 94-90 in San Antonio.
It was the second time in a season the Spurs had lost to the Knicks with a trophy on the line, after the 2025 NBA Cup final in December.
Mitch Johnson coaches the side, having been promoted permanently after Gregg Popovich stepped back from the bench into the president of basketball operations role.
Around Wembanyama are De'Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle, Devin Vassell, Julian Champagnie, Dylan Harper, Keldon Johnson and Harrison Barnes.
Why the Spurs matter
Every NBA franchise has a story.
The Boston Celtics built a dynasty. The Los Angeles Lakers became basketball's glamour club.
San Antonio defined sustained excellence, which is the line this series has used in every other profile because it is true.
Five championships. Two decades of relevance under one coach. A culture built on international recruitment before the rest of the league understood it mattered, which is exactly why so many Australians ended up here.
That last point is the Australian story. San Antonio did not sign Gaze, Mills, Baynes, Heal and Landale by accident. This was the franchise most willing to look outside America, and Australia benefited more than any other country except perhaps Argentina and France.
The David Robinson era
San Antonio drafted David Robinson first overall in 1987 and waited two years for him to complete his naval service.
The Admiral turned a 21-win team into a 56-win team in a single season and won an MVP in 1995. What he did not have was a second star, and the Spurs kept running into better teams.
Tim Duncan and the dynasty
The 1997 lottery changed the franchise permanently.
San Antonio won the first pick and took Tim Duncan, pairing him with Robinson. The Spurs won the championship in 1999, beating New York in five games, with Andrew Gaze on the roster.
Four more followed: 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014. Duncan played 19 seasons for one club and won five titles under one coach.
Popovich, Parker and Ginobili
Gregg Popovich coached the Spurs for nearly three decades and built the most consistent organisation in American sport.
Tony Parker arrived from France in 2001 and Manu Ginobili from Argentina in 2002, both late draft picks who became Hall of Fame players. That trio with Duncan won four championships together.
The 2014 title is the one most often held up as the best basketball the club ever played, a passing offence that dismantled Miami in five games. Mills and Baynes were part of it.
Wembanyama
San Antonio won the 2023 lottery and drafted Victor Wembanyama, a 224cm forward unlike anything the sport had produced.
Three years later the Spurs were back in the NBA Finals. Popovich had moved upstairs, Duncan and Ginobili and Parker were long retired, and the franchise had rebuilt around a player who may end up better than any of them.
The greatest Spurs of all time
Tim Duncan is the greatest power forward in NBA history and the greatest Spur by a distance.
David Robinson built the platform, an MVP and two championships at the end of his career.
Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker are both Hall of Famers who chose team success over individual numbers for two decades.
Victor Wembanyama is already the most exciting player the franchise has had and has taken it back to the Finals at 22.
And Patty Mills is the Australian who belongs in the conversation about the club's most beloved role players, a decade of service and a championship-clinching quarter.
Five Fast Facts
1. Three Australians have won NBA championships with San Antonio: Andrew Gaze, Patty Mills and Aron Baynes.
2. Five Australians have played for the Spurs, more than for any other franchise.
3. San Antonio has won five NBA championships, in 1999, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014.
4. Tim Duncan played 19 seasons for the Spurs under one head coach.
5. The Spurs lost the 2026 NBA Finals 4-1 to New York after leading Game 4 by 29 points.
Historical Timeline
- 1987: Draft David Robinson first overall.
- 1997: Draft Tim Duncan first overall.
- 1999: Win a first championship, with Andrew Gaze on the roster.
- 2003: Win a second championship.
- 2005: Win a third championship.
- 2007: Win a fourth championship.
- 2014: Win a fifth championship, with Patty Mills and Aron Baynes on the roster.
- 2023: Draft Victor Wembanyama first overall.
- 2025: Gregg Popovich steps back and Mitch Johnson takes over as head coach.
- 2026: Reach the NBA Finals and lose 4-1 to New York.
Looking ahead
San Antonio has the best young player in basketball and just found out how much distance is left.
Losing a Finals in five games, having led Game 4 by 29 points, is the kind of thing that either breaks a young team or sharpens it. Wembanyama is 22. Castle and Harper are younger. Mitch Johnson has taken the club to a Finals in his first full season in charge.
The Australian connection is currently dormant, with Landale at Atlanta and no Australian on the roster.
But no franchise has given more Australians a championship ring, and none has been more willing to look this far from home for players. On that record alone, the Spurs are worth watching from here.
