Since Coming of David, Spurs Have Been a Hot Property

In the great tradition of a used car salesman, which he once was, Angelo Drossos sold the quality of life in San Antonio by expounding on the merits of good, clean, cheap living. And, critics said, when Drossos uttered the word he did so with great authority.

Drossos, the Spurs’ president, was selling a product that seemed neither glamorous nor exciting.

He considered himself fortunate.

He lectured others that they should feel the same way.

“San Antonio is a good place to raise a family and live,” he would tell Spurs players when they complained that they were underpaid. “What’s the difference between $300,000 and $400,000 if you’re happy living where you’re living?”

It was that mentality and Drossos’ notorious reputation as a tightwad that eventually threatened the future of the Spurs in San Antonio. The Spurs were fortunate enough to win the 1987 lottery, which assured them of the right to draft David Robinson of Navy. It seemed that the virtues Drossos sold so religiously were also negatives that would prevent the Spurs from signing Robinson, who, because of a quirk in NBA rules, may have been able to become a free agent had he not signed for two years.

“They had a reputation as a cheap franchise,” Robinson said. “They wouldn’t pay the players and none of the players were making a lot of money.”

Drossos, however, realized Robinson’s importance to the Spurs and to San Antonio, which is the smallest TV market of any NBA city. Drossos, in fact, increased Robinson’s market value with a series of bombastic overstatements that cast Robinson as a basketball savior. A week after Pope John Paul II had visited San Antonio, Drossos said Robinson was as important to basketball in San Antonio as the Pope was to Catholics. And he also said, “David Robinson may not be able to walk on water, but he can at least walk on the San Antonio River.”

Drossos, thus, became a converted spender. After overwhelming Robinson with praise, he did the same with money. Robinson was given an eight-year, $26 million contract that met all of his unique needs. Robinson had a two-year Naval commitment and could not immediately join the Spurs, but Drossos agreed to pay him $1 million for each of those inactive years. Drossos also agreed to a clause in Robinson’s contract that guarantees that Robinson will never be lower than the second-highest paid player in the league after the fifth year of the contract.

Suddenly, San Antonio had become a great place to live, raise a family

“That was one of the biggest things I was impressed with when I was dealing with them,” Robinson said. “They were actually willing to spend the money.”

The effects of Robinson’s signing in September 1987 were monumental. It was because of Robinson that eight months later, B.J. “Red” McCombs, a Spurs minority partner and a longtime friend and business associate of Drossos, was willing to pay $47 million for a franchise he believed was overpriced at $40 million.

It was because of Robinson that a month after the purchase of the franchise, McCombs was able to electrify the city of San Antonio by signing Larry Brown to a five-year, $3.5 million contract -- more than double the amount of the average NBA coach -- only two months after Brown had directed Kansas to the NCAA title.

“David is why I’m here,” Brown said. “If David hadn’t been here, I wouldn’t have come. I’d still be at Kansas.”

It was because of Robinson’s signing that Spurs fans were supportive between the time McCombs purchased the franchise and Robinson arrived. Despite a 21-61 record last year, McCombs said Spurs revenues doubled.

It is because of Robinson that the Spurs this season have had the greatest turnaround in NBA history. The Spurs captured the Midwest Division championship with a 56-26 record as they won 35 games more than last season. In Lew Alcindor-Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s first season in Milwaukee, the Bucks won 29 more games than the previous season. In Larry Bird’s first year in Boston, the Celtics won 32 more games than the previous season. In terms of victories, Robinson has had more impact than any rookie in NBA history.

And in terms of saving a franchise and increasing the value of a franchise, he has had a profound effect. The Spurs are almost certain to move into the new San Antonio domed stadium (the Alamodome?) in 1993 -- that is, if McCombs, who also once was a used car salesman, can withstand the temptation to sell the team.

“This team right now would be worth $100 million to go to any market,” McCombs said. “And if this franchise was in a big market, I think it would be worth $150 million.”

So doesn’t that make it difficult not to sell?

“It would be hard not to sell,” McCombs said. “But we really don’t think about that. Right now, all of our thrust is making it work.”

Making it work in the NBA’s smallest TV market is a never-ending task. San Antonio is the ninth most populated city in the country, but it is only the 42nd-largest TV market -- smaller than Oklahoma City, Grand Rapids, Mich., and Columbus, Ohio.

“Our biggest sponsors here, for the same package they get from us, pay the Dallas and Houston teams 2 1/2 times as much,” McCombs said. “They pay even more in Southern California.”

Also in Southern California, at Lakers games, the courtside seats go for $350 a game. In San Antonio, the same seat goes for $50.

But there has always been that financial disparity. The only way for a small market to survive is to offer an interesting product -- which means at least one great player is required -- and to keep expenses down.

From their inception, the Spurs have understood that. Drossos and McCombs were part of a group that purchased the Dallas Chaparrals of the American Basketball Association in 1973. It was one of the strangest deals in sports history. The Dallas group badly wanted to sell, but the San Antonio group was not sure it wanted to buy.

“So we offered to lease the team for two years,” Drossos said. “We were responsible for the operating costs. We had the right to buy 50 percent after two years for $800,000. We bought the whole thing for $800,000.”

As Drossos would understand 14 years later, the Spurs needed to do something to upgrade the product. The Chaps had won only 28 games in their last year in Dallas. So during the 1973-74 season, the Spurs purchased the contracts of George Gervin and Swen Nater from the Virginia Squires for a total of $800,000. It wasn’t as glamorous a figure as $26 million would be 14 years later, but at the time, in San Antonio, it was a lot of money.

In 1976, Drossos had smartly positioned himself as the lead negotiator in the attempt of four American Basketball Association teams to join the NBA. Obviously, there was no way Drossos would agree to a deal that left the Spurs out, so, along with the Denver Nuggets, New Jersey Nets and Indiana Pacers, the Spurs were admitted into the NBA.

For the next seven seasons, the Spurs road on the coattails of the 6-8, 185-pound George Gervin, billed as the fabulous Iceman. From 1976-83, the Spurs were the fifth-winningest team in the NBA, behind only the Philadelphia 76ers, Lakers, Boston Celtics and Phoenix Suns. In 1979, they came close to advancing to the NBA finals. They were ahead 3-1 in a best-of-seven series with the Bullets, but lost the final three games. In the seventh and deciding game, they held a 10-point lead with less than two minutes left, but crumbled and lost.

The franchise began to decline in 1983 after Stan Albeck left to coach the Nets, who were without a coach, ironically, because Brown had left with six games left in the previous season.

Albeck’s departure began a period of instability for the aging Spurs. In the next six seasons, they had five coaches and their best record was 41-41. They missed the playoffs three times.

“The franchise was very dead,” McCombs said. “We didn’t realize how dead it was.”

And had the Spurs not been lucky in winning the seven-team lottery in 1987, the franchise might have died. McCombs, a native of -- and this is no joke -- Spur, Texas, has lived in San Antonio since 1958 and claims he would still have purchased the franchise to try and save it for the city. But he admits, “It would have been very questionable whether it could perform here.”

Drossos said, however, “If David hadn’t come to the franchise, I doubt if anybody would have bought it, including Red.”

In the great tradition of San Antonio, where the Spurs play in HemisFair Arena, only three blocks from the Alamo, McCombs has dug in for a last stand.

In 1993, he hopes to move to the “Alamodome,” which will seat 25,000 for basketball. It will have luxury boxes and 15,000 premium seats.

He has put a championship-caliber product on the floor. The Spurs won the division title after ridding themselves of 10 of the 12 players from last year’s losing team. They are anchored by the 24-year-old Robinson. They get leadership and scoring from nine-year veteran Terry Cummings. They have proficient young players in Rod Strickland and Willie Anderson, both 23, and 22-year-old Sean Elliott.

McCombs has spent so much money on contracts, including a five-year, $9-million deal for the rookie Elliott, that he says the only way he can make money this season in San Antonio is for the Spurs to advance to the Western Conference finals.