1999 NBA Finals
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| Dates | June 16–25 | ||||||||||
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| MVP |
Tim Duncan (San Antonio Spurs) |
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| Television | NBC (U.S.) | ||||||||||
| Announcers | Bob Costas and Doug Collins | ||||||||||
| Radio network | ESPN | ||||||||||
| Announcers | Brent Musburger and Jack Ramsay | ||||||||||
| Referees | |||||||||||
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| Hall of Famers |
Spurs: David Robinson (2009) Knicks: Patrick Ewing (2008) Officials: Dick Bavetta (2015) |
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| Eastern Finals | Knicks defeat Pacers, 4–2 | ||||||||||
| Western Finals | Spurs defeat Trail Blazers, 4–0 | ||||||||||
| Game 1: | Bennett Salvatore, Hugh Evans, Steve Javie |
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| Game 2: | Dan Crawford, Joe Crawford, Jess Kersey |
| Game 3: | Dick Bavetta, Hue Hollins, Ronnie Nunn |
| Game 4: | Hugh Evans, Ron Garretson, Mike Mathis |
| Game 5: | Joe Crawford, Steve Javie, Bennett Salvatore |
The 1999 NBA Finals was the championship round of the shortened 1998–99 NBA season or the 1999 season. The San Antonio Spurs of the Western Conference took on the New York Knicks of the Eastern Conference for the title, with the Spurs holding home court advantage. The series was played under a best-of-seven format, with the first team to collect four game victories winning the series. As of 2016, this is the last NBA Finals where neither team scored 100 or more points in any game during the series.
Will Lyman narrated the season-ending documentary Go Spurs Go! for NBA Entertainment.
The 1999 NBA season was shortened due to a labor dispute that led to a lockout, canceling the first 3 months of the season, literally making this the 1999 NBA Season and Finals (as all games were played in the year 1999). The NBA schedule consisted of 50 regular season games (61% of regular 82 games), and a normal playoff schedule; many teams never played each other.
This was the second year of the "Twin Towers" pairing of David Robinson and second year star forward Tim Duncan, who switched from his natural center position in college to power forward to play alongside Robinson in San Antonio; the two had been teammates since the Spurs drafted Duncan with the first overall pick in the 1997 NBA Draft- a pick they earned through the draft lottery, due to a 62-loss 1996–97 season that saw Robinson suffer an injury very early in the season and the team collapse from there. As a result of the shaky start, veteran coach Bob Hill was fired and replaced by then-general manager Gregg Popovich. In the first season of the Duncan/Robinson tandem the Spurs won 56 games but were eliminated by the Utah Jazz in the second round of the playoffs. The following year, led by Robinson, Duncan, Sean Elliott, and Avery Johnson, the Spurs won 37 of their 50 games and qualified as the top seed in the Western Conference, as well as the league's best record.
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